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BT  265  .S7  1846  c.l  ^ 
Spring,  Gardiner,  1785-1873 
The  attraction  of  the  cross 


^egt/^  ^f^'^^ 


SMJ^Uy^r 


II^P' 


y/pp('|/f«««9^(r, 


THE 


ATTRACTIOI  OF  THE  CROSS 


DESIGNED  TO  rLLTJSTRATE  THE 


LEADING  TRUTHS,  OBLIGATIONS  AND  HOPES 


CHRISTIANITY 


BY  GARDINER  SPRING,  D.  D., 

PASTOR  OF  THE  BRICK  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  IN  THE  CITY  OF  NEW-YORK. 


NEW-YORK: 

PUBLISHED    BY    M.    W.    DODD, 

BRICK  CHURCH  CHAPEL,  CORNER  OF  PARK  ROW  AND  SPRUCE  STREET, 

Opposite    the    City    Hall. 


A^^^V.l^ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1845,  by 

GARDINER    SPRING,    D.  D., 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Southern  District  of 
New-York. 


PRINTED  BY  E.    0.    JENKINS, 

114  Nassau  street. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 
The  Narrative  of  the  Cross, 5 

CHAPTER    II. 
The  Truth  of  the  Cross, 21 

CHAPTER    III. 
The  Cross  an  Effective  Ppopitiation  for  Sin, 43 

CHAPTER    IV. 
The  Cross  the  Only  Propitiation,       58 

CHAPTER    V. 

The  Actual  Purpose  of  the  Cross,       77 

CHAPTER    VI. 
The  Cross  Accessible  to  All, gg 

CHAPTER    VII. 
The  Cross  a  Completed  Justification, 103 

CHAPTER    VIII. 
Faith  in  the  Cross, 120 

CHAPTER    IX. 
The  Inquiring  Sinner  directed  to  the  Cross, 139 

CHAPTER    X. 
A  Stumbling-Block  removed, 157 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XI. 
The  Greatness  of  Sin  no  Obstacle  to  Salvation  by  the 

Cross,        186 

CHAPTER    XII. 
The  Holiness  of  the  Cross, 202 

CHAPTER    XIII. 
The  Religion  of  the  Cross  in  Distinction  from  Religions 

THAT  ARE  FaLSE  AND  SPURIOUS,  221 

CHAPTER     XIV. 

The  Cross  the  Test  of  Character, 242 

CHAPTER    XV. 
The  Cross  the  Preservation  from  Final  Apostacy,    .     .     .     260 

CHAPTER    XVI. 
Full  Assurance  of  Hope  at  the  Cross,        279 

CHAPTER    XVII. 
The  World  Crucified  by  the  Cross,    .  297 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 
All  Things  tributary  to  the  Cross,        324 

CHAPTER    XIX. 
The  Cross  the  Admiration  of  the  Universe,        342 

CHAPTER    XX. 
The  Triumphs  of  the  Cross,        360 

CHAPTER    XXI. 
The  Sinner's  Excuses  Refuted  by  the  Cross,       378 

CHAPTER    XXII. 
The  Cross  Rejected,  the  Great  Sin,        400 

Conclusion,         412 


THE 


ATTRACTION  OF  THE  CROSS, 


CHAPTEK   I. 

THE     NARRATIVE     OF    THE    CROSS. 

The  story  of  the  Cross  has  been  told  by  its  Author.  The 
Scriptures  uniformly  teach  us  to  look  upon  his  death  in  a 
light  totally  different  from  that  of  any  other  person.  They 
never  mention  it  without  emphasis,  nor  without  admira- 
tion. When  the  great  Ruler  of  the  world  was  pleased 
to  accomplish  his  purposes  of  mercy  toward  sinful  man, 
he  saw  fit  to  do  it  in  a  way  that  expressed  the  mysterious 
fullness  of  his  own  eternal  nature.  God  is  one  in  nature, 
and  three  in  persons.  A  fundamental  article  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  is,  that  one  of  these  three  divine  persons 
became  incarnate.  "  The  word  was  made  flesh,  and 
dwelt  among  us."  "  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a 
Son  is  given,  and  his  name  shall  be  called  Wonderful, 
Counsellor,  the  Mighty  God,  the  Everlasting  Father,  the 
Prince  of  Peace." 

When  "the fullness  of  time"  was  come,  "  God  sent 
forth  his  Son,  born  of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law, 
that  he  might  redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law, 
that  they  might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons."  His  birth 
was  humble,  away  from  home,  and  in  a  manger  ;  but  it 
was  announced  by  angehc  voices,  "  Behold  I  bring  you 
glad  tidings  of  great  joy,  for  unto  you  is  born  this  day,  in 


6         THE  NARRATIVE  OF  THE  CROSS. 

the  City  of  David,  a  Saviour,  who  is  Christ  the  Lord !" 
Behokl  the  wonder  ! — the  immortal  Deity  clothed  with 
the  nature  of  mortal  man — the  Everlasting  One  born  in 
time — the  God  Omnipotent  swathed  in  the  bands  of 
infancy,  and  lying  in  a  manger !  This  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Saviour's  sorrows.  Had  he  any  sense  of  lof- 
tiness to  be  subdued,  any  honest  pride  of  character  to  be 
wounded,  any  inbred  sentiments  of  virtuous  exaltation  to 
be  mortified,  it  would  be  in  view  of  such  mysterious 
humiliation  as  this.  No  pomp  of  earth  was  there ;  no 
show  of  worldly  magnificence ;  no  regal  splendor ;  though 
there  slept  on  that  pallet  of  straw  One  "  who  hath  on 
his  vesture  and  on  his  thigh  a  name  written,  King  of 
Kings,  and  Lord  of  Lords."  Judah's  crown  and 
sceptre  might  have  belonged  to  his  honored  parents  ;  and 
he  should  of  right  have  been  born  in  the  palace  of  David. 
But  this  Avere  ill  fitting  one  who  came  to  pour  contempt 
upon  the  pride  of  man;  whose  "  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world,"  and  who,  before  he  assumed  this  low  attire,  fore- 
saw that  he  should  put  it  off  only  on  the  Cross. 

The  tears  that  flowed  in  Bethlehem  often  flowed.  In 
his  infancy,  he  was  sought  as  the  victim  of  Herod's  sword  ; 
in  his  youth,  he  was  often  obliged  to  retire  from  the 
observation  of  men,  that  he  might  not  provoke  their 
rage.  But  while  for  thirty  years  he  avoided  the  scenes 
of  active  and  public  life,  his  great  work  of  suffering  and 
redemption,  in  all  its  parts  and  consequences,  w^as  always 
present  to  his  thoughts.  Wherever  he  went,  and  what- 
ever he  did  and  said,  he  conducted  himself  like  one  who 
felt  that  he  had  a  great  work  to  perform,  and  was  assidu- 
ously hastening  it  onward  to  its  final  catastrophe.  He 
knew^  what  others  did  not  know — that  the  hand  of  vio- 
lence would  cut  him  off  in  the  midst  of  his  days  ;  and  in 
view  of  his  coming  sorrows,  could  often  say,  "  I  have  a 


THE    NARRATIVE    OF    THE    CROSS.  7 

baptism  to  be  baptized  with,  and  how  am  I  straitened 
until  it  be  accomplished  !"  In  this  respect,  as  well 
indeed  as  in  every  other,  he  differed  from  all  other  men. 
Socrates,  though  he  addressed  himself  to  his  fate  with 
great  calmness,  and  spake  of  it  with  wonderful  tranquil- 
lity, and  drank  the  hemlock  with  unshrinking  firmness, 
did  not  anticipate  his  destiny  from  the  beginning  of  his 
career,  nor  even  many  days  before  its  close.  Those  there 
have  been  who  have  undertaken  enterprises  of  great  toil 
and  peril;  but  the  suffering  was  doubtful,  and  many  a 
gladdening  though  perhaps  deceptive  hope  was  immin- 
gled  with  their  fears.  But  the  Saviour  was  ascertained 
of  his  miserable  career  of  suffering,  as  well  as  its  close  of 
agony,  from  the  hour  he  quitted  his  Father's  bosom.  In 
the  eternal  "  council  of  peace"  he  "  gave  his  life  a  ran- 
som for  many."  All  his  arrangements  were  directed  to 
this  one  end ;  his  eye  and  his  course  were  single  ;  and 
the  farther  he  went  in  it,  the  more  ''  steadfastly  did  he 
set  his  face  to  go  to  Jerusalem."  Nothing  could  divert 
his  steps  from  that  melancholy  way  of  tears  and  blood. 
To  every  solicitation  his  reply  was,  "  The  Son  of  Man 
must  go  up  to  Jerusalem,  and  suffer  many  things,  and  be 
killed." 

Judea,  the  ancient  country  possessed  by  the  Hebrew 
race,  lay  in  the  centre  of  the  then  inhabited  globe,  and  was 
once  the  glory  of  all  lands.  It  was  the  great  thorough- 
fare between  the  commercial  countries  of  the  west 
and  south-west,  and  Babylon  and  Persia  on  the  east,  and 
the  trading  towns  skirting  the  Black  and  Caspian  Seas. 
Scenes  of  exciting  interest  in  Judea,  and  especially  in 
Jerusalem,  were  thus  a  spectacle  to  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth.  Jerusalem  was  the  glory  of  Judea,  as  Judea  was 
of  the  world.  It  was  the  seat  of  science  and  the  arts, 
the  seat  of  \vealth,  power  and  royal  magnificence,  such 


8  THE    NARRATIVE    OF    THE    CROSS. 

as  the  world  has  never  excelled.  At  the  time  the 
Saviour  "  drew  near  and  wept  over  it,"  it  had  lost  not  a 
little  of  its  ancient  splendor.  It  had  been  the  object  of 
contention  among  surrounding  nations,  and  had  long-  suf- 
fered all  the  vicissitudes  common  to  war  and  a  warlike 
age.  It  had  been  pillaged ;  its  inhabitants  had  been  slain, 
or  led  into  captivity,  and  the  conquerors  had  erected 
statues  of  their  own  divinities  in  its  temple.  Its  walls 
had  been  alternately  demolished  and  rebuilt,  and  now  it 
was  the  servile  tributary  to  a  foreign  power,  and  a  mere 
Roman  province.  Long  since  has  it  fulfilled  the  predic- 
tion of  the  Prophet,  and  been  "  trodden  down  by  the 
Gentiles."  The  proud  Moslem  and  the  turbaned  Turk 
encamp  in  the  "  stronghold  of  Zion,"  and  the  mosque 
of  Omar  towers  on  the  mount  where  once  stood  the  Ark 
of  God.  "  How  doth  the  city  sit  solitary  that  was  full  of 
people  !  how  is  she  become  as  a  widow!  The  adversary 
hath  spread  out  his  hand  upon  all  her  pleasant  things. 
How  hath  the  Lord  covered  the  daughter  of  Zion  with 
a  cloud  in  his  anger,  and  cast  down  from  Heaven  unto  the 
earth  the  beauty  of  Israel,  and  remembered  not  his  foot- 
stool in  the  day  of  his  anger  !" 

It  added  interest  to  the  scenes  of  the  crucifixion,  that  it 
took  place  during  the  annual  feast  of  the  Jewish  Pass- 
over. Not  only  did  this  selected  period  call  to  mind  the 
striking  correspondence  between  the  sacrifice  of  the  Pas- 
chal Lamb  and  the  offering  up  of  the  "  Lamb  of  God 
which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world ;"  but  was  of 
special  importance,  since,  by  divine  appointment,  it  called 
together  all  the  males  of  the  Jewish  nation  to  the  na- 
tional altar  at  Jerusalem.  From  all  parts  of  the  nation  they 
were  here  assembled  in  vast  and  solemn  concourse  to  this 
sacred  festival,  filling  "  the  guest  chambers"  of  the 
city,  and  occupying  the  thousand  tents  erected  on  its 


THE  NARE-ATIVE  OF  THE  CROSS.         9 

environed  hills  and  plains.  It  was  the  last  Passover  the 
Saviour  ate  with  his  disciples.  Before  another  should 
revolve,  what  mighty  changes  were  to  take  place,  both 
in  his  condition  and  theirs  !  He  was  to  be  crucified,  to 
rise  from  the  dead,  to  ascend  "  to  his  Father  and  their 
Father,"  and  enjoy  the  "  glory  he  had  with  Him  before 
the  world  was  :"  they,  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
cheered  with  the  promise  of  his  presence,  were  to  go  forth 
on  the  benevolent  errand  of  subduing  the  nations  to  the 
faith  of  his  gospel. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  in  Jerusalem,  and  just  before  the 
festival,  he  said  to  his  disciples,  "  With  desire  have  I 
desired  to  eat  this  Passover  with  you,  before  I  suffer.''^  A 
little  before  the  feast,  Judas  Iscariot  had  gone  to  the 
Chief  Priests  and  offered  to  betray  him.  This  hypocriti- 
cal traitor  had  covenanted  to  sell  his  Master  for  "  thhty 
pieces  of  silver" — the  fixed  price  of  a  slave  according  to 
the  Jewish  law.  While  sitting  at  the  Passover,  Jesus 
said  to  his  disciples,  "  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  one  of 
you  shall  betray  me."  And  not  long  after  this,  as  though 
he  would  hasten  the  fearful  consummation,  and  saw  that 
events  must  now  succeed  one  another  with  increased 
rapidity,  or  they  could  not  be  accomplished  within  the 
prescribed  period,  turning  to  his  betrayer,  he  said,  "  What 
thou  doest,  do  quickly.^^  I  am  ready;  delay  no  longer. 
"  He  then,  having  received  the  sop,  went  immediately 
out,  and  it  was  night.^^  It  was  a  night  much  to  be 
remembered.  The  signal  was  given,  and  the  last  scene 
of  our  Lord's  sufferings  began.  "  When  he  was  gone 
out,  Jesus  said.  Now  is  the  Son  of  Man  glorified,  and  God 
is  glorified  in  him  !"  The  great  design  which  he  came 
to  accomplish  was  to  be  forthwith  fulfilled. 

Near  to  Jerusalem  on  the  east,  and  at  the  foot  of  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  where  glided  the  brook  Kedron,  was  the 
1* 


10  THE    NARRATIVE    OF    THE    CROSS. 

garden  of  Gethsemane.  It  was  a  much -loved  retreat ; 
and  "thither"  the  Saviour  was  "wont  to  resort  with 
his  disciples."  There  are  seasons,  in  the  immediate  view 
of  trial,  when  the  anticipations  of  a  sensitive  mind  equal 
the  reality ;  and  which,  if  contemplated  with  tranquil- 
lity, are  the  surest  pledge  that  the  reality,  however 
dreadful,  will  be  encountered  with  a  submissive  and 
determined  purpose.  For  reasons  known  only  to  hhn 
who  saw  nigh  at  hand  the  mighty  struggle  he  was  about 
to  endure,  such  was  not  the  garden  of  Gethsemane  to  this 
great  sufferer.  He  was  agitated  ;  cries  of  bitter  suffering 
escaped  his  lips,  and  symptoms  of  mysterious  distress 
came  upon  him,  too  exquisite  for  the  human  mind  to  con- 
ceive of.  He  took  with  him  Peter,  James  and  John, 
and  began  to  "be  sorrowful  and  very  heavy. ^^  The 
enraged  multitude  had  not  yet  scourged  him  ;  nor  had 
the  nails  pierced  his  hands  and  feet ;  nor  were  the  light 
and  love  of  heaven  yet  eclipsed.  Yet  was  it  an  hour  of 
darkness,  of  temptation,  of  conflict,  of  depression  too 
deep  to  be  endured.  Agonies  of  fear  were  extorted  from 
him,  w^hich,  even  in  view  of  the  death  by  crucifixion,  we 
had  not  looked  for  in  One  so  spotless,  and  whom  death  in 
any  form  could  not  injure.  There  was  something  in  this 
approaching  scene  which  the  eye  of  man  did  not  behold. 
For  even  though  "  the  whole  strength  of  divinity"  was 
put  in  question  for  it,  yet  was  he  so  moved  by  the  appre- 
hension of  evils  which  he  foresaw  must  be  encountered, 
that  the  sacred  historian  informs  us  he  was  "  very  heavy 
and  sore  amazed.''''  It  was  not  the  death  of  one  that  he 
was  about  to  endure,  but  the  concentrated  wrath  of  God 
which  his  violated  law  denounces  upon  millions.  It  is 
no  marvel  he  was  afraid.  To  all  who  suffered,  and  espe- 
cially to  his  disciples,  he  had  hitherto  been  the  giver  of 
consolation  :  now  he  was  one  that  needed  it.     "  My  soul," 


THE  NARRATIVE  OF  THE  CROSS.         H 

is  exceeding  sorrowful,  even  unto  death  ;  sit 
ye  here,  while  I  go  yonder  and  pray."  Verily,  "he bore 
our  griefs,  he  carried  our  sorrows."  There  was  a  burden 
upon  him  which,  unaided  and  alone,  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  sustain.  Thoughts  crowded  on  his  mind  that 
filled  him  with  sadness,  with  terror  ;  and  such  was  his 
anguish  that  "  he  was  in  an  agony,  and  sweat  as  it  were 
great  drops  of  blood  falling  down  to  the  ground."  As 
though  at  such  an  hour  he  would  not  that  his  intercourse 
with  heaven  should  be  heard  by  mortal  ears,  he  withdrev/ 
himself  from  his  disciples  about  the  length  of  a  stone's 
throw,  and  "  fell  on  his  face  and  prayed,  0  my  Father/ 
if  it  be  possible  let  this  cup  jyass  from  me  :  nevertheless, 
not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou  vjiltf^''  And  again  he  went 
away  the  second  time  and  prayed,  "  0  my  Father,  if 
this  cup  may  not  pass  from  me  except  I  drink  it,  thy  will 
be  done  !"  And  "  he  left  them  again,  and  went  away 
and  prayed  the  third  time,  saying  the  same  words." 
Nor  were  his  cries  unheeded.  We  are  told  by  an  apostle 
that  "  he  was  heard  in  that  he  feared.' "*  His  fear  was 
probably  excited,  not  only  by  the  invading  sufferings, 
but  by  the  apprehension  that  he  might  not  have  strength 
for  the  unequaled  trial.  In  this  fear  he  was  relieved  by 
a  special  messenger  from  heaven.  "  And  there  appeared 
an  angel  from  heaven  strengthening  him."  Fitting  ser- 
vice for  an  angelic  heart!  Wonderful  proof  of  his 
humiliation  and  suffering,  that,  at  such  an  hour,  a  crea- 
ture should  appear  to  minister  to  his  Creator  !  It  was  not 
to  lighten  the  burden  of  sin  and  sorrow  which  he  bore, 
nor  to  remove  the  cup.  Rather  was  it  to  reach  it  to  him 
undiluted — to  place  it  in  his  hands  in  all  its  bitterness. 
But  it  was  "to  strengthen  him."  It  would  seem  as 
though  it  were,  with  heaven's  sweetest,  most  inspiring 


12  THE    NARRATIVE    OF    THE    CROSS. 

smile,    to  say,  Drink  it,   Son  of  God !  for   a  worWs 
redemption,  drink  ! 

Centuries  before  this  affecting  scene  took  place,  the 
Prophet  Isaiah  had  written,  "  Behold  my  servant  whom 
/  uphold,  mine  elect  m  whom  my  soul  delig-hteth  ;  I 
have  put  my  spirit  upon  him  ;  he  shall  not  fail  nor  he 
discouraged.^'  Never  was  there  such  an  awful  enter- 
prise undertaken :  in  any  other  hands  it  would  have 
failed,  and  every  other  being  in  the  universe  would  have 
sunk  under  it  in  hopeless  discouragement  and  dismay. 
But  he  did  not  fail ;  nor  was  he  discouraged  by  these  pre- 
libations  of  the  bitter  cup.  The  time  of  prayer  was  over. 
Instructive  lesson  !  unutterably  tender  encouragement  to 
those  whom  bitter  experience  has  taught  that,  "  if  they 
would  reign  with  Christ  they  must  also  suffer  with 
him  !"  Many  is  the  child  of  God  whose  fears,  like  those 
of  his  Divine  Master,  have  been  allayed  by  prayer.  The 
angel  of  mercy  has  wiped  away  his  tears,  and  he  has 
come  forth  calm  and  collected,  not  because  the  dangers 
Ke  feared  can  be  averted,  but  because,  in  the  lone 
garden  and  darker  night  of  his  affliction,  he  has  found 
some  unwonted  confirmation  of  the  promise,  "  As  thy 
day  is,  so  shall  thy  strength  be."  In  Gethsemane,  the 
Saviour  had  vanquished  fear,  and  was  furnished  for  the 
conflict.  Mark  the  tranquil  spirit  with  which  he  rose 
from  the  earth  on  which  he  had  lain  prostrate,  and  met 
the  traitor  who  was  now  coming  with  a  great  multitude 
with  stones  and  staves  from  the  Chief  Priests.  "  Friend  f 
tohererefore  art  thou  come  ?"  "  Hail  Master  !  and  he 
kissed  him,"  was  the  foul  betrayer's  only  reply.  And 
it  was  sufficiently  significant.  The  Son  of  Man  was 
betrayed  into  the  hands  of  his  murderers.  But  this  be- 
trayed One  was  no  longer  agitated.    No  fear  sat  upon  his 


THE    NARRATIVE    OF    THE    CROSS.  13 

brow  ;  doubt  and  fear  had  departed ;  and  in  their  place 
a  cahii  and  unwavering  confidence  had  taken  up  their 
abode  in  his  bosom.  To  the  ruffian  band  who  came  to 
seize  him,  he  advanced  and  said,  "  I  am  he  !"  There 
was  something  in  this  avowal  so  expressive  of  his  supreme 
dignity  and  power,  that  it  overwhelmed  them,  ruffians  as 
they  were.  "  They  went  backward  and  fell  to  the 
ground."  Jesus  asked  them,  "Whom  seek  ye  7"  In 
this  inquiry  there  was  a  deep  meaning,  and  they  were 
speechless — they  had  no  words  to  reply.  They  seized 
and  bound  him,  and  led  him  before  his  mortal  enemies. 
These  were  to  be  judges  ;  these  were  to  decide  whether 
the  Son  of  God  were  a  blasphemer,  and  to  be  adjudged 
to  death !  And  here  he  stood  alone.  Peter  denied  him, 
and  the  rest  of  his  disciples  "  forsook  him  and  fled." 
Human  attachments  retired  under  this  dark  cloud ; 
Christian  affijction  itself  grew  cold,  and  solemn  oaths 
were  disregarded — ^thus  fulfilling  the  prediction,  "  He 
trode  the  wine-press  alone,  and  of  the  people  there  was 
none  with  him." 

The  haste  with  which  his  trial  was  conducted  was  an 
outrage  upon  the  very  forms  of  justice  and  humanity. 
Caiaphas,  the  High  Priest,  presiding  over  the  Sanhedrim, 
seemed  at  once  to  prejudge  the  question.  He  instructed 
the  Council,  and  with  prophetic  instinct,  "  that  it  was  ex- 
pedient for  one  man  to  die  for  the  people,  that  the  whole 
nation  should  not  perish."  This  was  "  their  hour  and 
the  power  of  darkness."  Having  thus  gotten  the  Sa- 
viour into  their  hands,  they  employed  the  entire  night, 
not  in  idle  and  cruel  scrutiny  alone,  but  in  heaping 
reproach  and  injury  upon  him  whom  their  severest  scrutiny 
found  so  irreproachable  and  pure.  It  was  a  night  of 
fatigue  and  anguish  to  him ;  to  them  of  chagrin  and  ma- 
lignity. Notwithstanding  all  the  false  witnesses  they  could 


14         THE  NARKATIVE  OF  THE  CROSS. 

suborn,  they  utterly  failed  to  substantiate  a  single  charge 
against  him.  At  length  the  High  Priest  called  upon 
him  under  a  solemn  oath,  to  tell  them  "  if  he  were  the 
Son  of  God."  His  answer  was,  "I  am;  and  hereafter 
ye  shall  sec  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of 
power,  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven."  This 
avowal,  instead  of  opening  their  hearts  to  truth,  or  their 
consciences  to  apprehension,  was  just  what  the  rancor 
of  his  malignant  accusers  desired.  The  popular  tumult 
was  now  exasperated.  It  was  an  inflamed  mob  making 
themselves  strong  for  their  desperate  purpose,  and  bore 
no  resemblance  to  a  grave  tribunal  to  whose  hands  were 
committed  the  solemn  responsibilities  of  penal  justice. 
The  meekness  and  tranquillity  of  their  prisoner  had  no 
effect  to  abate  their  fury.  When  the  decisive  question 
was  proposed,  Is  the  prisoner  guilty?  they  answered 
and  said,  "ife  is  guilty  of  death. ^^  Then  followed  a 
scene  of  indignity  and  outrage,  in  the  very  sanctuary  of 
justice,  that  was  a  fitting  prelude  to  the  Cross.  They 
^^  spit  upon  him;"  they  "buffeted  him;"  and  others 
"  smote  him  with  the  palms  of  their  hands,"  saying, 
"  Prophesy  unto  us,  thou  Christ,  who  is  he  that  smote 
thee  !"  Yea,  the  very  "  servants  "  did  strike  him  with 
the  palms  of  their  hands. 

The  morning  had  now  dawned  on  that  darkest,  bright- 
est, most  memorable  day  in  the  history  of  time.  The 
power  of  life  and  death  was  not  at  this  time  in  the  hands 
of  the  Jews.  Early  in  the  morning,  therefore,  "the 
Chief  Priests  held  a  consultation  with  the  elders  and 
scribes  and  the  whole  council,"  the  result  of  which  was 
that  Jesus  was  bound  with  cords,  and  carried  before 
Pontius  Pilate.)  the  Roman  governor,  and  a  heathen 
judge,  as  accused  of  the  crime  of  treason  against  the 
state.     Early  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  Pilate  had  been 


NARRATrV'E    OF    THE    CROSS.  ^5 

appointed  the  g-oveinor  of  Judea,  in  the  room  of 
Valerius  Gracchus.  He  was  a  cruel  dissembling  tyrant, 
and  in  every  view  a  man  of  most  odious  character, 
and  sufficiently  familiar  with  blood.  The  unwilling- 
ness of  a  man  of  his  impetuous  and  inexorable  spirit 
to  condemn  Jesus,  would,  one  would  have  sup- 
posed, have  been  proof  of  his  innocence  even  to  the  re- 
lentless Jews.  He  was  thrice  brought  before  Pilate,  and 
on  the  first  trial  formally  pronounced  innocent.  Upon 
a  private  interview  with  his  prisoner,  on  a  second  trial, 
Pilate  asked  him  "  if  he  were  the  King  of  the  Jews." 
Christ  acknowledged  that  he  was,  but  told  him  that  "  his 
kingdom  was  not  of  this  world."  Pilate,  therefore,  per- 
sisted in  his  sentence,  and  informed  the  Jews  that  "  he 
found  no  cause  of  death  in  him."  The  Jews  were 
clamorous  ;  and  Pilate,  desirous  to  avoid  the  responsi- 
bility of  a  final  decision,  directed  them  to  carry  him 
before  Herod,  who  happened  at  that  time  to  be  in  Jeru- 
salem, and  to  whose  jurisdiction,  as  Tetrarch  of  Galilee, 
the  Galilean  might  properly  belong.  Herod,  after 
scarcely  the  forms  of  investigation,  clothed  him  with  a 
purple  robe,  exposed  him  to  the  mockery  of  his  guards, 
and  sent  him  back  through  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  to 
Pilate.  Pilate,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Jews,  consented 
to  institute  a  third  trial.  The  prisoner  was  now  led  into 
the  praetor's  court,  and  there  contemptuously  and  cruelly 
tied  to  a  pillar  and  scourged,  thus  "  giving  his  back  to 
the  smiters  and  his  cheeks  to  them  that  plucked  off  the 
hair."  Still  this  severe  Roman  judge  affirmed  his  inno- 
cence. And  as  a  proof  that  he  would  have  no  part  in 
the  death  of  an  innocent  man,  he  washed  his  hands  in 
the  presence  of  the  people  ;  till,  wearied  by  their  clamors 
and  impelled  by  their  malice,  he  gave  him  up  at  last  to 
suffer  the  sentence  of  their  law,  while  they,  in  reply,  only 


16         THE  NARRATR'E  OF  THE  CROSS. 

Uttered  the  fearful  imprecation  so  terribly  fulfilled  in  their 
subsequent  history,  "  His  blood  be  on  us  and  on  our 
children !" 

The  crime  of  which  he  was  accused  before  the  court 
of  Israel  was  hlasphemy^  and  the  penalty  of  the  Jewish 
law  was  death  by  stoning.  But  this  would  not  satisfy 
his  blood-thirsty  murderers:  "Crucify  him!  crucify 
him  !"  was  their  infuriate  cry.  "  To  the  cross  !  to  the 
cross !"  Before  the  sentence  was  executed,  he  was 
forced  to  endure  all  the  scorn  and  cruelty  which  the 
ingenuity  of  his  tormentors  could  devise.  The  soldiers 
derided  him  ;  they  put  a  wreath  of  thorns  upon  his  head  ; 
they  stripped  him,  and  put  on  him  a  scarlet  robe  ;  and, 
having-  given  him  a  reed  for  a  sceptre,  they  thronged 
around  him,  contemptuously  bowed  their  knees,  and 
cried  in  derision,  "  Hail,  thou  King  of  the  Jews  !"  Here, 
too,  they  spit  upon  him,  and  taking  the  mock  sceptre 
from  his  hand,  "  smote  him  on  the  head." 

He  was  now  ready  to  be  offered — such  a  victim  as 
the  sun  never  beheld — a  sacrifice  to  abolish  and  swal- 
low up  all  other  sacrifices — the  last  oblation.  Justice 
burned  with  wrathful  fury.  It  was  a  spectacle  to  the 
universe.  God  beheld  it,  for  God  was  there.  His 
invisible  angels  laid  by  their  harps,  and  were  the  silent 
and  astonished  spectators  of  the  scene.  And  the  dark 
spirits  of  hell  were  there,  flitting  across  and  hovering  over 
the  scene,  and  instigating  the  murderers.  They  led  him 
a  little  way  out  of  the  city,  and  there  "  they  crucified 
him."  It  was  not  a  sudden  and  immediate  death,  but 
one  of  agonizing,  lingering  torment.  Nor  was  it  an 
honorable  one,  but  the  most  ignominious  ever  imposed 
upon  the  vilest  of  men.  The  Jewish  law  stigmatized 
it  as  the  foulest  and  most  indelible  curse,  while  the  san- 
guinary code  of  Rome  reserved  it  as  the  last  and  bitterest 


THE    NARRATIVE    OF    THE    CROSS.  ^7 

ingredient  infused  into  the  cup  of  misery  and  shame. 
They  strip  him  of  his  cloak,  and  then  of  his  coat,  and 
then  take  off  his  under  garments,  that  he  may  be  naked 
upon  the  Cross.  They  fasten  him  by  nails  driven  through 
his  hands  and  feet,  and  "  with  him  two  malefactors, 
Jesus  in  the  midst."  "  It  pleased  the  Lord  to  bruise  him 
and  put  him  to  grief."  This  was  the  bitter  cup,  and 
the  last  stage  of  his  woful  passion. 

There  was  something  in  this  scene  of  wo  which  I 
know  not  that  the  human  mind  has  ever  comprehended. 
"Never  was  there  any  sorrow  like  unto  his  sorroAV." 
Nor  do  I  know  that  its  full  weight  and  measure  can  be 
comprehended;  and  only  know  that,  sustained  as  the 
man  Christ  Jesus  was  by  his  union  with  the  Deity,  he  was 
overwhelmed.  Nay,  more,  though  the  created  and  un- 
created natures  were  here  combined  in  one  person,  it 
shrunk  and  staggered.  The  commission  was  executed, 
"  Awake,  0  sword,  against  my  Shepherd,  against  the 
man  that  is  my  fellow,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts."  And 
when  that  sword  descended,  griefs  overwhelmed  him 
that  were  equivalent  to  the  claims  of  avenging  justice  on 
sinning  men,  and  griefs,  in  many  particulars,  resembling 
those  which  overwhelm  the  reprobate  in  the  world  of 
mourning.  Guiltless  and  adorable  as  he  was,  he  held 
in  his  hands  that  cup  of  trembling,  "the  dregs  whereof 
all  the  wicked  of  the  earth  shall  wring  them  out  and 
drink  them." 

The  only  relief  to  the  gloom  of  this  dark  scene  is 
found  in  the  dignity  and  loveliness  of  the  sufferer. 
While  the  infatuated  Jews  still  indulged  themselves  in 
their  ill-timed  and  cruel  raillery,  wagging  their  heads 
and  saying,  "If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  come  down 
from  the  cross,"  the  sole  rebuke  he  uttered  was  expressed 
in  the  prayer,  "  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not 


18       THE  NARRATIVE  OF  THE  CROSS. 

whatthey  do  !"  To  the  suppliant  malefactor  who  was  sus- 
pended by  his  side  he  said,  "  This  day  shalt  thou  be  with 
me  in  Paradise."  Here  too  we  find  one  at  least,  the  best 
beloved  of  his  disciples,  and  some  faithful  women,  undis- 
mayed by  the  terrors  of  the  scene,  and  watching  him  to 
the  last.  "  Near  the  cross  stood  Mary,  his  mother,  weep- 
ing ;  and  with  her,  John,  the  disciple  Avhom  he  loved." 
To  her  he  says,  "  Woman,  behold  thy  son  ;''  to  him, 
' '  behold  thy  mother  ! " 

It  was  now  the  ninth  hour  of  the  day.  The  important 
moment  fixed  on  from  eternity  for  the  Author  of  life  to 
die  was  at  hand.  There  had  been  a  preternatural  dark- 
ness over  the  land  from  the  sixth  hour,  when  this  mourn- 
ful scene  began,  to  the  ninth  hour.  The  Father  hitherto 
was  wont  to  smile  on  hisbelovedSon  ;  but  now  the  sufferer 
cried  in  vain,  "  My  God  !  my  God  !  why  hast  thou  for- 
saken me  V  The  earth  trembled  ;  the  rocks  cleft  asun- 
der ;  the  graves  yielded  up  their  dead  ;  the  vail  of  the  tem- 
ple, for  so  many  ages  undisturbed,  was  rent  in  twain  from 
the  top  to  the  bottom  ;  and  Jesus  cried  with  a  loud  voice, 
"  It  is  finished  !"  The  scene  was  over.  And  when  he 
had  said,  "  Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commit  my  spirit," 
he  "  bowed  his  head  and  gave  up  the  ghost." 

The  mighty  work  of  man's  redemption  was  finished. 
The  great  event  on  which  Christianity  turns  was  now 
completed.  The  Eternal  Son  or  God  had  expired  on 
THE  Cross.  And  now  over  that  vast  multitude  which 
crowd  the  top  of  Calvary  and  skirt  its  declivities,  is  there 
the  deepest  and  the  most  solemn  silence.  Not  a  shout  is 
heard  even  from  the  embittered  Jews.  Perhaps  their 
malice  is  satiated  by  a  view  of  the  pale  and  bleeding  body 
of  the  Nazarene.  Perhaps  the  words  still  sound  in  their 
ears,  "  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  Vv  hat 
they  do,"  and  a  secret  misgiving  holds  them  mute  and 


THE    NARRATB'E    OF    THE    CROSS.  jg 

speechless.  "  All  the  people,"  says  the  sacred  historian, 
"  that  came  together  to  that  sight,  smote  upon  their  breasts 
and  returned."  One  voice  only  was  heard,  breaking  the 
profound  stillness,  the  voice  of  the  Pagan  Cesiturion,  who 
stood  in  the  garb  of  a  Roman  soldier  near  the  Cross. 
"  And  when  the  Centurion  which  stood  over  against  him 
saw  what  was  done,  he  said.  Truly  this  man  ivas  the 
Son  of  God  /" 

Such  is  the  story  of  the  Cross.  Has  it  no  attractions  1 
Other  events  there  have  been  of  mighty  interest ;  but  this 
outweighs  them  all.  Distinguished  in  the  counsels  of 
heaven  above  all  other  scenes  ever  beheld  by  angels  or 
men,  this  tragical  event  is  destined  to  awake  the  atten- 
tion of  a  slumbering  world.  With  eager  expectation  did 
men  look  forward  to  it  before  it  was  accomplished  ;  and, 
now  that  it  is  past,  will  they  look  back  upon  it  to  the  end 
of  time.  The  world  is  full  of  proof  of  the  intense  inte- 
rest with  which  the  giddy  and  thoughtless  have  contem- 
plated the  Cross,  and  the  devout  gloried  in  it.  No  minis- 
ter of  the  Gospel  ever  rehearsed  the  narrative  without  a 
listening  auditory  ;  no  mother  ever  sang  it  over  the  pil- 
low of  her  babe  without  tenderness  ;  no  child  ever  read 
it  without  a  throbbing  heart.  No  living  man  ever 
perused  it  with  indifference  ;  no  dying  man  ever  listened 
to  it  without  emotion.  The  Cross  will  be  remembered 
when  everything  else  is  forgotten.  It  has  intrinsic  power, 
and  God  himself  has  invested  it  with  attractions  pecu- 
liarly its  own.  The  Scriptures  point  to  the  Cross,  and 
say,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  !"  The  most  emphatic 
announcement  they  make  is,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God 
which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  !"  The  bright- 
est and  most  wondrous  vision  of  John,  of  all  he  beheld 
on  earth  when  lightened  by  the  glory  of  the  descending 
angel,  and  of  all  he  beheld  in  heaven,  was  that  of  which 


20        THE  NARRATIVE  OF  THE  CROSS. 

he  says,  "  I  beheld,  and,  lo,  in  the  midst  of  the  throne, 
and  of  the  four  beasts,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  Elders, 
stood  a  Lamb  as  it  had  been  slain  /" 

Nothing  will  interest  you  like  the  Cross.    Nothing  can 
do  for  you  what  the  Cross  has  done. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    TRUTH    OF    THE    CROSS. 

What  is  truth?  The  poet  Avell  replies,  "  'Twas  Pi- 
late's question  put  to  truth  itself."  Never  was  there  but 
one  individual  who  could  stand  forth  before  the  world 
and  say,  "  I  am  the  truth  !"  It  was  not  Socrates,  nor 
Confucius,  nor  Mahomet ;  nor  yet  Luther,  nor  Calvin, 
nor  Edwards.  Yet  one  there  was,  in  whom  all  truth 
was  so  concentrated  that  he  was  truth  itself.  It  was 
the  child  of  Mary  and  the  Son  of  God  ;  it  was  he  who 
was  crucified  on  Calvary. 

We  may  be  interested  in  the  narrative  of  the  Cross;  but 
what  if  it  should  turn  out  to  be  fiction  ?  If  it  be  a  true 
narrative,  what  is  its  import,  and  what  are  the  truths  it 
embodies!  Men  need  a  religion  which  satisfies  their 
intelligence.  We  aflirm  that  the  Cross  furnishes  such  a 
religion  ;  that  it  is  the  religion  revealed  from  heaven  ;  the 
only  religion  that  possesses  the  attraction  of  truth  and 
certainty,  and  in  which  the  most  sceptical  may  have  im- 
movable confidence.  Religion  may  venture  to  more 
than  chasten  her  faith  with  hope,  and  timidly  trust  that 
the  word  of  the  God  of  truth  has  not  deceived  her.  She 
dwells  by  the  well-spring  of  life,  and  draws  from  it  the 
pure  waters  of  salvation.  If  men  may  be  certain  of  any- 
thing that  is  not  the  mere  object  of  sense,  they  may  put 
confidence  in  the  truth  of  the  Cross.  The  topics  on 
which  it  treats  are  grand  and  awful,  as  well  as  inex- 
pressibly interesting  and  tender;  but  it  has  nothing  to 


22  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS. 

do  with  vague  conjecture,  studied  mystery,  profuse 
verbiage  without  meaning,  or  laborious  trifling  without 
intelligence  and  instruction.  It  is  not  a  dim  uncertainty 
that  rests  upon  the  views  there  acquired.  They  are  clear 
and  permanent  convictions,  because  they  are  true.  God 
approves  them  ;  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  author  of  truth 
and  peace,  gives  them  a  stability  and  power  which 
delusion  and  error  can  never  originate. 

The  Narrative  of  the  Cross  is  itself  a.  true  nar- 
rative. This  is  a  simple  question  of  fact.  Was  there, 
or  was  there  not,  such  a  person  as  Jesus  Christ,  who, 
under  the  reign  of  Tiberius  Caesar,  was  accused  of  treason 
and  blasphemy,  found  guilty,  and  put  to  death  ?  The 
most  full  and  satisfactory  account  of  this  transaction  is 
found  in  the  writings  of  the  four  Evangelists ;  which, 
by  the  wonderful  care  of  Divine  Providence,  after  having 
been  distinctly  recognized  from  age  to  age  as  the  works 
of  those  whose  names  they  bear,  and  as  the  same  un- 
corrupted  works  as  when  they  came  from  the  pen  of 
their  authors,  and  after  having  been  circulated  through- 
out the  whole  Christian  world,  have  come  down  to  us  in  all 
genuineness  and  authenticity.  Their  authors  were  either 
deceived  or  deceivers,  or  honest  and  true  men.  They 
were  not  deceived,  because  the  events  which  they  narrate 
never  could  have  been  the  creatures  of  imagination. 
The  wildest  enthusiast  in  the  world  could  not  have  been 
the  subject  of  such  delusion,  as  to  have  believed  them 
real,  when  they  were  unreal.  Nor  were  they  deceivers. 
There  is  every  consideration  against  such  an  hypothesis 
which  can  be  furnished  liy  the  nature  of  the  case,  by 
their  own  character  and  history,  and  by  their  published 
writings.  The  events  and  circumstances  of  the  cruci- 
fixion are  such  as  never  could  have  been  got  up  by  artful 
and  designing  men  ;  much  less  by  the  illiterate  fishermen 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS.  £3 

of  the  lakes  of  Judea,  who  quitted  their  nets  to  announce 
them  to  the  workl.  To  an  impartial  mind,  their  narra- 
tive carries  the  evidence  of  its  verity  on  the  face  of  it. 
No  impostor  ever  penned  such  an  account  as  that  in  the 
closing  chapters  of  the  four  Evangelists — furnishing-,  as 
each  of  them  does,  in  the  minuteness  of  his  details,  so 
many  continually  recurring  means  of  detecting  deception 
if  any  were  practiced.  While  each  narrator  speaks  for 
himself,  and  the  variations  in  his  narrative  show  that 
each  wrote  independently,  and  without  any  preconcert 
with  the  others,  each  gives  substantially  the  same  ac- 
count ;  and  the  seeming  inconsistencies,  just  enough  to 
test  the  ingenuousness  and  research  of  the  reader,  all 
disappear  upon  a  careful  inspection.  Men  do  not  act 
without  a  motive.  What  was  the  motive  of  the  men 
who  stood  before  the  world  as  the  persevering,  un- 
flinching witnesses  of  the  crucifixion,  if  they  were  false 
witnesses  1  Was  it  wealth,  pleasure,  or  fame  1  Was 
it  the  poor  ambition  of  being  the  founders  of  a  false 
religion,  not  only  at  the  expense  of  that  which  all 
impostors  have  ever  sought,  but  in  the  prospect  of  poverty, 
dishonor,  suffering  and  death?  Says  the  celebrated 
Rousseau,  "  The  history  of  Jesus  Christ  has  marks  of 
truth  so  palpable,  so  striking,  so  perfectly  immutable, 
that  its  inventor  would  excite  our  admiration  more  than 
its  hero."  Infidels  themselves  have  not  ventured  to 
take  refuge  in  the  presumption  that  the  narrative  of  the 
Cross  is  not  a  true  history.  The  events  themselves, 
and  the  narrators  of  them,  have  been  canvassed  with 
a  severity  to  which  no  other  facts  and  no  other  men 
have  been  subjected,  for  more  than  eighteen  hundred 
years.  It  was,  as  we  have  already  seen,  so  ordered 
in  the  wisdom  of  Divine  Providence,  that  these  events 
did  not  take  place  in  a  dark  and  illiterate  age.     If  the 


24  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS. 

scenes  of  Calvary  were  a  fable,  it  is  to  the  last  degree 
absurd  to  suppose  that  there  was  not  light,  and  logical 
acumen,  and  learning  enough  in  the  Augustan  age  of 
Rome,  to  have  demonstrated  them  to  be  fabulous. 
They  profess  to  have  taken  place  at  a  time  and  place 
where  strangers  of  distinction,  as  well  as  the  entire  male 
population  of  Judea,  were  assembled  ;  under  the  official 
direction  of  individuals  whose  names,  character  and  his- 
tory, are  of  sufficient  notoriety  to  have  furnished  security 
against  everything  in  the  form  of  imposition.  Never  was 
greater  opportunity  given  to  the  adversaries  of  Christian- 
ity to  disprove  the  narrative,  than  was  given  at  the  time 
when  the  event  professes  to  have  taken  place.  The  first 
spot  where  the  apostles  were  directed  to  make  their  first 
public  announcement  of  it  was  in  Jerusalem  itself,  and  in 
the  presence  of  his  murderers — the  last  place  where,  and 
the  last  men  before  whom,  they  would  present  them- 
selves, if  their  testimony  was  not  true.  Hence  the  Jews, 
while  they  denied  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  never  thought 
of  calling  in  question  his  crucifixion ;  but  gloried  in  it, 
and  triumphantly  adhered  to  the  imprecation,  "  His 
blood  be  on  us,  and  on  our  children  !"  Nor  have  enlight- 
ened Pagans  withheld  from  it  their  testimony.  Sueto- 
nius, Tacitus  and  Pliny  all  record  it,  as  a  matter  of 
acknowledged  history,  and  as  impartial  historians  deemed 
it  an  event  too  important  to  suppress  ;  while  Celsus,  Por- 
phyry and  Julian,  learned  and  inveterate  infidels  as  they 
were,  confirm  the  testimony.  Pilate,  the  Roman  Gov- 
ernor of  Judea,  as  w^as  his  official  duty  to  do,  sent  an 
account  of  the  crucifixion  to  the  Emperor  Tiberius,  and 
that  account  was  deposited  in  the  archives  of  the  em- 
pire. The  annals  of  the  Pagan  world,  to  this  day,  pre- 
serve this  great  fact,  as  well  as  the  miraculous  events  that 
attended  it,  and  also  a  minute  account  of  the  Saviour's 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS.  25 

character  and  miracles.  There  is  abundant  evidence  of 
the  truth  of  the  Scriptural  narrative  of  the  crucifixion, 
independently  of  the  Scriptures  themselves  ;  so  that  "  if 
the  narrative  of  the  Evangelists  were  now  lost,  all  the 
material  facts  connected  with  that  memorable  scene  might 
be  collected  from  Pagan  historians,  and  Jewish  and  other 
Antichristian  writers." 

The  question  naturally  presents  itself,  How  far  does 
this  fact  avail  in  proving  the  truth  of  that  system  of  reli- 
gion which  is  contained  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  ?  Here 
several  thoughts  deserve  consideration.  Human  reason 
has  never  been  able  to  satisfy  itself  with  a  religion  of  its 
own  inventing.  It  has  had  every  opportunity  of  doing 
so,  which  the  most  learned  age,  and  the  finest  minds  could 
furnish  ;  and  the  result  of  the  experiment  has  been  the 
grossest  darkness,  the  most  foolish  absurdities,  and  the 
greatest  corruption  of  morals.  The  proof  of  this  observa- 
tion is  in  the  history  of  the  past.  If  you  look  to  Egypt, 
the  cradle  of  science  and  the  arts  ;  if  to  Greece,  whose 
genius  and  literature  still  constitute  the  acknowledged 
standard  of  taste  ;  if  to  Rome,  the  garlands  of  whose  phi- 
losophers are  still  green  upon  its  grave  ;  you  see  that 
"the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God,"  and  that  "profess- 
ing themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became  fools."  If  there 
is  a  God,  infinitely  great  and  good,  the  Creator  and  Gov- 
ernor of  men,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  he  would  give 
them  a  revelation  of  his  will.  Men  have  indeed  no  right 
to  demand  such  a  revelation,  nor  may  they  complain  if  it 
is  denied.  Yet  from  what  they  know  of  God  in  his  works 
and  in  his  Providence,  were  it  not  reasonable  to  hope  for 
it?  We  know  there  was  a  sort  of  vague,  undefinable 
impression  on  the  minds  of  many  of  the  heathen,  of  some 
approaching  day  of  light,  and  that  this  anticipation  became 
very  general  as  the  time  for  the  Messiah's  advent  drew 
2 


26  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS. 

nig-h.  And  dim  as  these  hopes  were,  they  were  not  in 
vain.  This  floating-  anticipation  became  settled,  and  was 
reahzed  when  "  in  the  fulness  of  time  God  sent  forth  his 
Son,"  and  this  vision  of  a  golden  age  became  a  present 
reality  when  he  expired  on  the  Cross.  If  the  narrative  of 
the  cross  is  a  true  narrative,  the  religion  that  is  based 
upon  it  is  the  true  religion.  Its  claims  rest  upon  the 
truth  of  this  narrative.  If  there  was  such  a  person  as 
Jesus  of  Nazareth — one  possessing  his  unblemished  cha- 
racter, imbued  with  the  wisdom  expressed  in  his  public 
and  private  discourses,  working  the  miracles  which  he 
wrought,  living  the  life  he  lead,  and  dying  the  death  he 
died — then  is  Christianity  most  certainly  true.  On  this 
basis  the  apostles  themselves  rest  this  sacred  structure. 
"  I  have  delivered  unto  you,  first  of  all,  how  that  christ 
DIED  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures."  This  is 
the  sure  "  corner  stone"  which  is  laid  in  Zion  ;  the  Rock 
on  which  God  builds  his  church. 

Let  us  look  at  this  thought  for  a  few  moments,  and- 
inspect  some  of  its  bearings.  The  death  of  Christ  is 
indubitable  witness  to  the  truth  of  the  Old  Testament. 
If  this  fact  is  demonstrated,  the  truth  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Scriptures  is  demonstrated,  the  Divine  mission  of 
Moses  and  the  prophets  is  confirmed,  and  the  verity  of 
their  writings  substantiated.  To  see  the  force  of  this 
remark,  we  have  only  to  suppose  that  the  crucifixion  of 
Christ  had  never  taken  place.  In  such  an  event  we 
must  give  up  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  ;  we  must 
regard  them  as  erroneous,  and  look  upon  them  as  an 
uninspired  volume.  A  dark  and  heavy  night  would 
rest  upon  the  whole  system  of  religion  which  they  re- 
veal. They  would  present  an  explicable  voliuue,  con- 
taining many  things  above  the  reach  of  created  wisdom, 
and  at  the  same  time  unmeaning  prefigurations  and  false 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS.  £7 

prophecies.     The  death  of  Christ  sheds  the  only  light 
upon  them  they  are  capable  of  receiving,  and  furnishes 
the  only  solution  of  what  must  otherwise  have  remained 
impenetrably  mysterious.     They  would  have  remained 
a  sealed  book  had  not  "  the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah 
been  worthy  to  open  the  book,    and   loose   the   seals 
thereof."     The  Cross  alone  solves  the  mystery  of  the 
animal    sacrifices  of  the  patriarchal    age,   and   of  that 
bloody  ceremony  which  God  instituted  among  the  Jews. 
Those  ancient  oracles  are  dumb,  those  ancient  altars  give 
no  instruction  to  the  world,  if  they  do  not  teach  that  God 
requires  duty  or  suffering,  obedience  or  penalty,  a  per- 
fect righteousness  or  a  perfect  reparation  ;  and  the  lesson 
they  read  no  man  can  understand,  if  they  tell  not  of  par- 
don from  the  Cross.    The  same  may  be  said  of  the  whole 
system  of  prophecy  contained  in  the  Old  Testament.    Its 
great  outlines,  as  well  as  its  wonderfully  minute  details, 
all  concentrate  in  the  Cross,  and  are  there  determined 
with  the  most  perfect  ^precision.     There  is  the  forsaken 
and  reproached  One  ;  the  unresisting  and  abused  One ;  the 
One  who  was  "  sold  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver  ;"  the  One 
against  whom   "the  kings  of  the  earth  set  themselves, 
and  the  rulers  took  counsel  together  ;"  the  One  who  was 
"  cut  off  not  for  himself,"  whose  "  feet  and  hands  were 
pierced, ' '  and  who  was  "numbered  with  the  transgressors. ' ' 
There  is  he  who  was  "laughed  to  scorn  ;"  against  whom 
men  "  should  shoot  out  the  lip  and  shake  the  head;" 
whose  garments  should  be  divided  between  his  murderers; 
who  should  be  forsaken  of  God ;  to  whom  his  enemies 
should  give  the  vinegar  and  gall ;  whose  bones  should  re- 
main unbroken,  and  who  should  "  make  his  gi-ave  with 
the  wicked  and  the  rich  in  his  death."     Vast  as  is  the  en- 
tire system  of  prophecy— reaching  from  the  fall  of  man  to 
the  consummation  of  all  things— darkly  as  its  oracle  some- 


28  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS. 

times  spake,  and  confined  as  it  was  to  a  people  from  whom 
the  Messiah  was  to  be  descended,  it  is  all  plain  and  intelli- 
gible when  we  see  it  pointing  to  him  who  hung  on  Calvary. 
In  him  alone  it  receives  its  fulfillment ;  and  it  is  by  their 
relation  to  him  that  a  multitude  of  otherwise  unimportant 
events,  of  which  it  speaks,  are  magnified.  Such  events 
multiply  and  grow  upon  us  the  more  we  become  familiar 
with  the  sacred  writings,  each  falling  in  w^ith  the  great 
consummation  on  Calvary,  and  carrying  conviction  to 
the  mind,  that  if  the  narrative  of  the  Cross  is  true,  Chris- 
tianity cannot  be  false.  Hence,  we  find  that  our  Lord 
and  his  apostles  appeal  to  the  Old  Testament  in  proof  of 
Christianity,  and  by  an  induction  of  so  many  particulars, 
and  so  striking,  as  to  constitute  an  incontrovertible  argu- 
ment to  show  that  the  whole  method  of  salvation  by  the 
Cross  of  Christ  was  foreseen  and  foretold  under  the  Old 
Testament,  and  that  its  authors  were  divinely  inspired. 
And  if  this  be  so,  the  conclusion  is  equally  plain  and 
incontrovertible,  that  the  New  Testament  Scriptures,  in 
which  alone  the  Old  terminate  and  are  fulfilled,  are  a 
divine  revelation,  and  that  Jesus  came,  in  accordance 
with  the  declared  counsel  of  heaven,  to  do  and  suflfer 
the  will  of  his  Father.  And  this  conclusion  is  corrobo- 
rated by  the  fact,  that  scattered  as  were  the  writers  of 
this  ancient  volume  through  the  centuries  that  inter- 
vened between  Moses  and  Malachi,  they  all  pursued  one 
great  end,  and  were  all  under  the  absorbing  influence  of 
this  one  thought. — the  redemption  of  man  by  the  cruci- 
fied Son  of  God. 

It  is  far  from  the  design  of  these  pages  to  furnish  even 
an  outline  of  the  evidences  in  favor  of  Christianity.  It 
is  but  to  take  a  transient  view  of  them  while  standing 
by  the  Cross.  It  is  here  the  Christian  loves  to  view 
them,  and  discovers  a  system  of  belief  of  which  God  is 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS.  29 

the  Author,  and  sees  doctrines  and  duties  which  have 
upon  them  the  image  and  superscription  of  the  Deity. 
The  Cross  of  Christ  has  an  inseparable  connection  with 
all  that  is  peculiar  in  the  religion  that  is  revealed  from 
heaven.  The  Cross  and  the  Bible  stand  or  fall  together. 
You  cannot  take  away  the  Cross  without  demolishing 
the  whole  structure  ;  while,  if  the  Cross  remains,  the 
whole  superstructure  remains,  "  built  upon  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Apostles  and  Prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself 
being  the  chief  corner-stone."  Let  this  link  of  the  chain 
be  broken,  and  there  is  nothing  to  support  the  whole; 
let  this  be  supported,  and  the  whole  is  supported.  The 
man  who  reads  the  Bible  nearest  the  Cross,  sees  most  of 
its  high  credentials,  and  feels  most  deeply  that  it  con- 
tains a  system  of  truth  every  way  worthy  of  God  to  re- 
veal. The  principles  which  it  unfolds,  the  religion  it 
inculcates,  the  method  of  the  divine  administration  it 
has  introduced,  and  its  wonderful  salvation,  beheld  and 
contemplated  amid  the  scenes  of  Gethsemane  and  Cal- 
vary, are  fitted  to  produce  the  strong,  the  vivid,  perma- 
nent impression,  that  they  are  too  lofty  to  have  been 
within  the  reach  of  human  invention — too  holy  and  pure 
to  have  originated  with  so  polluted  a  source — too  good 
to  be  attributed  save  to  the  Father  of  Lights.  Where 
the  heart  feels  the  influence  and  power  of  the  Cross,  it  has 
evidence  of  the  truth  of  it  which  nothing  else  can  give ; 
views  too  clear,  and  illumined,  and  transforming,  ever  to 
be  forgotten,  or  greatly  eclipsed.  "  He  that  belie veth  on 
the  Son  of  God  hath  the  witness  in  himself."  The 
word  is  sealed  to  him  by  the  Spirit,  who  wrote  it.  His 
own  heart  responds  to  the  truth  of  the  Cross.  He  has  felt 
its  teachings  to  be  true  within  his  own  soul.  To  him 
belongs  a  deeper  Scriptural  wisdom  than  all  scholarship 
can  bestow — a  wisdom  grounded  on  his  perception  of  the 


30'  THE    TRUTH    OF    THE    CROSS. 

internal  evidence,  as  made  known  by  the  adaptations  of  all 
the  doctrine  which  is  without,  to  all  the  "felt  necessities  of 
the  spirit  which  is  within."  Nor  is  this  any  visionary  evi- 
dence. The  g-reat  evidence  in  favor  of  Christianity  is 
found  in  Christianity  itself;  in  a  character  so  heavenly, 
that  its  moral  elements  never  come  into  contact  with  the 
depraved  heart  without  producing- an  effervescence  that  in- 
dicates their  mutual  revulsion  ;  in  a  power  so  subduing  to 
that  revulsion  that  we  cannot  fail  to  discover  in  it  the  finger 
of  God.  The  Cross,  therefore,  stands  out  before  the  world 
as  embodying  the  g-reat  system  of  revealed  truth,  in  oppo- 
sition to  all  false  relig-ions,  and  the  evidence  by  which  it 
commends  itself  is  adapted  to  every  class  of  minds.  Before 
any  man  renounces  it,  let  him  be  well  persuaded  tliere  is 
any  other  relig-ion  revealed  from  heaven.  Let  him  un- . 
dertake  to  specify  the  kind  and  the  amount  of  testimony 
required  to  satisfy  his  own  mind  that  God  has  revealed 
his  truth  to  men,  and  he  may  find  it  all,  in  all  its  variety, 
and  in  all  its  cog-ency  and  tenderness,  at  the  Cross. 

There  is  another  view  of  the  truth  of  the  Cross.  The 
manifestations  of  God's  truth  to  men  have  been  pro- 
gressive, just  as  are  the  manifestations  of  his  wisdom, 
power  and  goodness  m  the  material  creation.  At  one 
time  the  earth  is  clothed  with  the  mantle  of  Winter  ; 
then  succeeds  the  preparation  and  the  promise  of  the 
Spring ;  then  the  warmth  and  kindliness  of  Summer ;  till 
at  last  Autumn  pours  forth  its  rich  treasures,  and  the 
divine  goodness  gushes  from  over-flowing  fountains, 
and  rims  in  ten  thousand  channels,  everywhere  dis- 
tributing fertility  and  gladness.  So  with  the  means  of 
intellectual  and  moral  culture.  The  Cross  is  far  in 
advance  of  all  other  religions  revealed  from  heaven.  The 
light  of  truth  and  mercy  had  its  commencement  and 
progress.     At  one  time,  it  was  like  the  flickering  lamp 


THE    TRUTH    OF    THE    CROSS.  3^ 

which  appeared  to  Abraham ;  at  another,  like  the  burn- 
ing bush  which  appeared  on  Horeb  ;  at  another,  like  the 
pillar  and.  the  cloud  in  the  desert ;  at  another,  like  the 
Shekinah  over  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant;  at  another,  like 
the  brighter  emanations  of  that  glory  in  the  temple, 
when  the  priests  and  the  people  could  not  look  upon  it 
for  the  brightness ;  and  at  another,  like  the  splendid 
vision  of  the  Prophet  when  he  beheld  the  Son  of  Man, 
the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  high  and  lifted  up,  and 
his  train  filled  the  sanctuary,  and  the  whole  earth  was  full 
of  his  glory.  This  progressive  revelation  of  the  truth 
continued  until  the  crucifixion.  The  light  had  been 
gradually  rising  ever  since  the  first  promise  in  Paradise  ; 
and  now  it  was  high  day.  The  ancient  Patriarchs  and 
Jews  lived  under  a  comparatively  dark  dispensation,  a 
dispensation  of  types  and  shadows,  and  which  served 
"  unto  the  example  and  shadow  of  heavenly  things."  It 
was  not  a  "faultless  covenant;"  for  if  it  had  been, 
"  then  should  no  place  have  been  sought  for  the  second." 
It  was  "  a  figure  for  the  time  then  present,"  and  never 
designed  to  be  God's  clearest  revelation  to  the  world. 
There  is  a  dispensation  which  is  far  in  advance  of  it,  and 
the  great  High  Priest  of  which  ' '  hath  obtained  a  more 
excellent  ministry,  by  how  much  more  also  he  was  the 
Mediator  of  a  better  Covenant,  which  was  established 
upon  better  premises."  The  blood  of  the  sacrifice  offered 
by  Abel  was  for  himself  alone,  and  had  no  sufficiency, 
even  as  a  prefiguration,  beyond  his  own  wants.  The 
sacrifices  under  the  Jewish  law  respected  only  the  Jewish 
nation.  Both  Patriarchal  and  Mosaic  sacrifices  were 
positive  and  not  moral  institutions ;  they  were  founded 
on  relations  and  circumstances  that  were  mutable,  and 
therefore  might  be,  and  were,  abrogated.  These  latter 
were   designed  to   preserve  the  Hebrew   nation  distinct 


32  THE    TRUTH    OF    THE    CROSS. 

from  all  other  nations  of  the  earth,  until  he  came  who 
was  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  and  by  whose  death  the 
wall  of  partition  between  Jew  and  Gentile  was  broken 
down,  and  glad  tidings  announced  to  all  people.  This 
was  one  of  the  offensive  featuresof  the  Cross  to  men 
who  "  thought  that  they  were  righteous  and  despised 
others,"  and  rendered  it  "to  the  Jew  a  stumbling  block." 
But  it  is  a  blessed  and  glorious  feature  of  it,  that  it  opens 
this  "new  and  living  way, "and  invites  all  to  draw  nigh 
without  distinction  of  clime,  condition,  or  character.  It 
is  a  revelation  that  covers  a  broader  surface  than  any 
antecedent  revelation.  Truth  here  presents  her  attrac- 
tions to  all  the  children  of  men.  This  was  an  important 
advance  in  the  series  of  divine  revelations.  The  Jews 
were  not  more  distinguished  from  other  and  Gentile  na- 
tions by  the  truth  contained  in  the  Oracles  of  God  under 
the  Old  Testament  dispensation,  than  are  men  in  Christian 
lands  now  distinguished  from  the  ancient  Jews  by  the 
truth  revealed  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  Christian  privi- 
leges are  less  restricted  and  more  spiritual.  The  hour  is 
come  in  which  neither  the  mountain  of  Samaria,  nor  the 
Temple  at  Jerusalem,  are  the  only  fitting  places  for  social 
devotion.  Men  may  now  worship  anywhere ;  erect  sanctu- 
aries anywhere  ;  and  wherever  they  are  erected,  God  re- 
cords his  name.  Never  till  Christ  came,  was  the  promise 
uttered,  "  Where  two  or  three  are  met  together  in  my 
name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them."  Never  before 
his  death,  was  there  such  intercourse  between  heaven 
and  earth.  Never  before  was  there  such  a  society  collect- 
ed in  the  world,  as  that  of  which  he  is  the  head,  and  his 
Cross  the  standard.  Scattered  as  they  are,  and  separated 
as  they  are  by  lines  of  external  organization,  all  true 
believers  form  now  one  spiritual  community  and  one 
church,  because  they  have  "  one  Lord,"   who,  for  the 


THE    TRUTH    OF    THE    CROSS.  33 

suffering  of  death,  is  crowned  with  glory  and  honor.  The 
Sun  of  Righteousness  is  now  pouring  a  flood  of  light  upon 
the  dark  nations.  Jesus  came  down  to  earth,  assumed 
our  nature  and  died  the  just  for  the  unjust,  in  order  that 
the  worship  of  God  might  become  the  devotion  of  the 
world,  and  the  religion  of  his  truth  and  grace  the  uni- 
versal religion.  "  Behold  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with 
men,  and  he  will  dwell  among  them !"  There  is  no 
*'  holy  place,"  no  "  holy  of  holies,"  into  which  the 
High  Priest  alone  entered  once  a  year — where  he  that 
sits  between  the  cherubim  is  invoked  ;  but  wherever 
and  whenever  men  draw  nigh  to  him  by  faith  in  the 
blood  of  his  Son,  then  is  the  hour  of  intercourse,  and 
there  is  his  chamber  of  audience.  "  For  ye  are  not 
come  to  the  mount  that  might  be  touched  and  that 
burned  with  fire,  nor  unto  blackness,  and  darkness,  and 
tempest,  and  the  sound  of  a  trumpet,  and  the  voice 
of  words  ;  but  ye  are  come  unto  Mount  Zion,  and  unto 
the  city  of  the  living  God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and 
to  an  innumerable  company  of  angels,  to  the  general  as- 
sembly of  the  Church  of  the  First  Born  which  are  written 
in  heaven ;  and  to  God  the  Judge  of  all,  and  to  the 
spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,  and  to  Jesus  the  Medi- 
ator of  the  New  Covenant,  and  to  the  blood  of  sprink- 
ling, which  speaketh  better  things  than  the  blood  of 
Abel." 

But  there  is  a  still  more  important  thought  in  relation 
to  the  truth  of  the  Cross.  When  Jesus  stood  a  prisoner  at 
the  bar  of  Rome,  he  made  the  following  impressive, 
exulting  avowal :  "  To  this  end  was  I  born,  and  for  this 
cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  /  might  hear  witness 
unto  the  truth  .'"  The  Cross  was  designed  to  be  the  most 
compendious  and  vivid  expression  of  all  religious  truth.  It 
is  the  great  witness  for  the  truth  of  God.  The  testimony 
2* 


34  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS. 

of  Christ  was  the  testimony  of  the  Prince  of  martyrs. 
Nowhere  else  does  truth  utter  her  voice  with  such  dis- 
tinctness, such  fullness  and  emphasis.  She  spoke  with 
power  in  the  death  of  Prophets  under  the  law ;  in  the 
death  of  Stephen,  and  in  the  triumphs  of  Paul,  under  the 
axe  of  Nero  ;  but  as  she  never  spake  before,  she  speaks 
from  Calvary.  Were  an  angel  to  descend  from  heaven 
to  become  the  teacher  of  men,  his  instructions  might  well 
be  listened  to  with  eagerness.  But  the  Cross  is  the  teacher 
of  angels.  It  is  the  Deity  himself  bearing  witness  to  his 
own  doctrines.  It  is  "  the  light  of  the  world,"  and  like 
the  apocalyptic  "angel  standing  in  the  sun,"  when  "the 
whole  earth  was  lightened  with  his  glory."  Every  truth 
in  the  Bible  brings  us  at  last  to  the  Cross,  and  the  Cross 
carries  us  back  to  every  truth  in  the  Bible ;  so  that  the 
sum  and  substance  of  all  truth  is  most  impressively 
proved,  illustrated  and  enforced,  by  "  Christ  and  him 
crucified."  A  right  conception  of  what  is  included 
in  the  Cross,  insures  a  right  conception  of  every  im- 
portant doctrine  contained  in  the  Bible.  This  is  the 
hinge  on  which  the  whole  system  turns,  and  the  great 
truth  by  which  alone  any  and  all  truths  can  be  under- 
stood. 

Several  particulars  here  deserve  to  be  attended  to.  No- 
where is  the  true  character  of  God  so  fully  revealed  as  in 
the  Cross.  The  works  of  creation,  with  all  their  beauty 
and  magnificence,  make  no  such  discoveries  ;  nor  do  the 
wondrous  ways  of  Divine  Providence,  much  as  they  are 
fitted  to  arrest  the  attention  of  men,  and  to  show  them 
that  "  verily  there  is  a  God  that  judgeth  in  the  earth." 
The  revelations  made  to  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  were 
very  inferior  to  those  made  by  Jesus  Christ,  on  this  great 
article  of  the  Christian  faith.  God  spake  to  them  from 
the  thick  darkness  ;   the  brightness  of  his  glory  was  con- 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS.  35 

cealed  by  the  veil  that  covered  the  "  most  holy  place  ;" 
and  not  until  the  Saviour  exclaimed,  "It  is  finished,"  and 
gave  up  the  ghost,  was  it  ''  rent  from  the  top  to  the  bot- 
tom," and  the  holiness  that  is  untarnished,  the  justice  that 
is  inflexible,  the  grace  that  is  infinite,  the  mysterious 
wisdom,  and  amiable  and  awful  sovereignty  and 
goodness,  appeared  in  forms  that  sinful  men  might  look 
upon  them  and  live.  Here  is  not  only  a  true  and  faith- 
ful, but  a  finished  portrait  of  the  Divine  Nature  ;  one 
which,  but  for  the  Cross,  never  would  have  been  known. 
No  view  of  the  Deity  is  more  complete,  even  though 
enjoyed  by  the  "  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect ;"  for 
the  clearest  and  brightest  perceptions  of  that  upper  Sanc- 
tuary, are  those  in  which  he  is  seen  through  the  Cross. 
We  fix  our  eye  on  the  Cross,  and  feel  that  "  It  is  a  fear- 
ful thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God  ;" 
while,  as  we  dwell  more  intensely  on  that  ineffably  tender 
scene,  do  we  more  satisfactorily  discover,  that,  amid  all 
the  agitation  of  its  frightful  terrors,  it  is  mainly  designed 
to  lead  us  to  a  reconciling  God,  and  to  impress  upon  our 
hearts  a  sense  of  his  boundless  love  and  mercy. 

One  would  suppose  tliat  men  need  no  other  instruction 
upon  the  great  doctrine  of  human  sinfulness,  except  their 
own  experience  and  observation,  and  the  melancholy 
light  which  is  cast  upon  this  truth  by  the  pages  of  his- 
tory. The  fact  that  men  are  sinners  is  indeed  here 
taught  with  sufficient  clearness;  but  the  intenseness  of  their 
moral  depravity,  and  the  infinite  demerit  of  sin,  are  taught 
only  by  the  Cross.  The  self-gratulatory  and  self-com- 
placent notions  which  they  entertain  of  themselves  and 
their  fellows,  the  wretched  subterfuges  for  their  wicked- 
ness, and  all  their  exulting  self-righteousness,  disappear 
before  the  stern  and  melting  rebuke  of  Calvary.  "  If 
one  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead.'''' — "  The  Son  of 


36  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS. 

Man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost.'''' 
Who  does  not  see  that  the  mighty  remedy  indicates  the 
mahg-nant  and  deadly  disease  ?  Nothing-  but  the  deepest 
and  direst  exigency  could  have  demanded,  or  even  justi- 
fied, such  a  sacrifice  as  the  death  of  God's  eternal  Son. 
The  sufferings  of  Christ  are  the  most  affecting  testimony 
of  man's  unyielding,  helpless  depravity,  in  the  universe. 
Nor  do  they  indicate  less  clearly  his  true  and  proper  ill- 
desert,  than  the  fires  that  shall  never  be  quenched. 

Nowhere  are  we  taught  how  man  can  be  just  with  God, 
save  at  the  Cross.  If  there  is  one  truth  taught  more 
emphatically  by  the  Cross  than  another,  it  is  that  "  Christ 
is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to  every  one  that 
believeth ;"  and  that  "  our  righteousness"  is  found  only 
in  his  finished  career  of  suffering  obedience  and  obedient 
suffering.  Justice  and  mercy,  hatred  of  sin  and  the  par- 
don of  the  sinner,  the  threatening  of  death  and  the 
promise  of  life,  irreconcilable  as  they  are  by  reason  and 
conscience,  meet  and  harmonize  in  the  marvelous  fact, 
that  "  He  who  knew  no  sin,  was  made  sin  for  us,  that  we 
might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him." 

Would  we  know  who  those  are  whom  God  intends  to 
save  by  this  redemption  ?  The  Cross  answers,  "  Every 
one  that  believeth  :" — "  God  hath  set  him  forth  as-  a  pro- 
pitiation, through  faith  in  his  blood."  Do  we  inquire, 
who  have  the  divine  warrant  to  believe  ?  This  inquiry 
also  the  Cross  arswers  ;  and  by  the  dignity  of  its  great 
sufferer  and  the  infinite  merit  of  his  sacrifice,  by  its 
unembarrassed  invitations  of  mercy  and  its  unqualified 
commands,  gives  the  assurance  that  "  there  is  enough 
and  to  spare,"  that  "  whosoever  will  may  come,"  and 
that  "  him  that  cometh  shall  in  no  wise  be  cast  out." 
Would  we  know  how  man,  benighted  and  fallen,  and 
disabled  by  the  sin  that  dwelleth  in  him,  is  ever  to  come 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS.  37 

to  Christ?  While  the  Cross  unequivocally  assures  him, 
that  "  no  man  can  come  except  the  Father  draw  him," 
it  at  the  same  time  teaches  him  to  say,  "  I  can  do  all 
things  through  Christ  which  strengtheneth  me."  Do  we 
inquire,  whom  he  will  draw,  and  to  whom  this  needed 
strength  will  be  imparted  ?  The  Cross  answers,  "Seek 
and  ye  shall  find."  Do  we  still  inquire,  Who  will  seek 
and  find  the  grace  that  thus  draws  them  1  Here  too  light 
falls  on  the  path  of  our  inquiry,  though  it  often  shines 
in  darkness  and  the  darkness  comprehendeth  not. 
The  Cross  points  far  back  to  the  eternal  counsels  of 
mercy — refers  to  those  whose  names  are  written  in  the 
Lamb's  book  of  life  as  his  stipulated  reward  ;  who  were 
"chosen  in  Christ  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,'' 
and  who,  thus  predestinated,  "  were  also  called."  And 
if  the  question  be  asked,  if  those  who  are  thus  called, 
will,  ever  be  allowed  to  draw  back  to  perdition  ?  the  reply 
of  the  Cross  is,  "  Whom  he  called  them  he  also  justified, 
and  whom  he  justified,  them  he  also  glorified."  The 
Cross  is  no  game  of  chance,  nor  are  the  results  of  it  left  to 
the  fickle  purpose  and  heart  of  man.  "  My  Father  that 
gave  them  me  is  greater  than  all,  and  none  is  able  to 
pluck  them  out  of  my  Father's  hand."  Is  it  into  the 
coming  eternity  that  we  desire  to  look  ?  no  other  hands 
have  so  drawn  aside  the  veil  as  those  have  done  that  were 
nailed  to  the  accursed  tree.  Life  and  immortality  are 
brought  to  light  by  him  ;  it  is  his  voice  which  all  that  are 
in  their  graves  shall  hear  and  come  forth ;  before  his  bar 
of  judgment  shall  they  stand,  and  from  his  lips  shall  they 
receive  their  eternal  destiny.  It  was  not  far  from  the  Cross 
that  he  once  said,  "In  my  Father's  liouse  are  many 
mansions  ;  if  it  were  not  so  I  would  have  told  you ;" 
and  still  nearer  was  it  to  that  place  of  tears  and  blood 
that  he  made  the  affecting  demand,   "  If  these  things  be 


38  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS 

done  in  the  green  tree,  what  shall  be  done  in  the 
dry?" 

There  is  one  subject  on  which  the  Cross  speaks  with 
peculiar  emphasis :  I  mean  the  radical  and  everlasting 
distinction  between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked.  While 
it  is  the  first  and  only  refuge  for  the  broken-hearted,  it  is 
the  last  refuge  in  the  universe  for  the  incorrigible  ;  and 
while  in  its  fullness  and  efficacy  there  is  no  room  for  fear 
to  the  penitent,  its  fearful  sanctions  give  no  room  for  hope 
to  the  impenitent.  If  its  flames  of  justice  thus  burned 
against  God's  well -beloved  Son  when  he  stood  in  the 
sinner's  place — while  on  the  one  hand,  the  believer  may 
confide  in  this  complete  satisfaction  of  its  claims — on  the 
other,  with  what  inextinguishable  fury  will  they  burn 
against  the  man  who  disowns  this  substitution,  and  has 
nothing  to  protect  him  from  the  coming  wrath  ! 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  how  intimately  the  New 
Testament  Scriptures  especially  connect  all  the  truths  of 
revealed  religion  with  the  Cross.  Do  they  speak  of  the 
faith,  it  is  "  the  faith  in  Christ ;"  of  the  truth,  it  is  "  the 
truth  in  Christ;"  of  hope,  it  is  "  hope  in  Christ;"  of 
the  church,  it  is  "  one  body  in  Christ ;"  of  her  triumphs, 
it  is  "  triumph  in  Christ ;"  of  the  covenant  of  God,  it  is 
"  his  covenant  in  Christ ;"  of  spiritual  blessings,  they  are 
*' spiritual  blessings  in  Christ ;"  of  heavenly  places,  they 
are  "  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus  ;"  of  the  promises, 
they  are  "  yea  and  amen  in  Christ ;"  of  God,  it  is 
"  God  in  Christ."  Wherever  the  Cross  is  known,  the 
truth  of  God  is  known ;  and  wherever  the  Cross  is 
unknown,  or  obscured,  there  the  truth  is  unknown  or 
obscured.  The  entire  testimony  of  the  Cross  is  harmo- 
nious, and  shows  that  the  truth  is  harmonious  in  all  its 
parts.  In  some  minds  truth  is  found  to  exist  in  a  confused 
and  chaotic  state.    What  such  minds  need  is  a  clearer 


THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS.  39 

''  knowledge  of  Christ,"  and  a  careful  comparison  of  all 
their  attainments  with  this  standard.  Just  as  the  Spirit 
of  God  brooded  upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  and  reduced 
the  primitive  chaos  to  this  beautiful  world,  does  the  Cross 
of  Christ  g-ive  shape  and  form,  place,  proportion  and 
beauty  to  the  truth  of  God.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  discover, 
much  less  appreciate,  the  harmony  and  connection  which 
run  through  all  the  essential  doctrines  of  the  Gospel, 
without  a  just  estimate  of  the  relation  they  sustain  to  the 
Cross. 

There  is  one  more  thought  in  relation  to  the  truth  of 
the  Cross,  and  that  is,  it  in  the  last  revelation  of  God's 
will  to  man.  The  light  here  reached  its  zenith.  It  had 
been  forty  centuries  in  rising — gradually  dissipating  cloud 
after  cloud — now  concentrating  and  now  diffusing  its 
rays — now  cheering  some  few  selected  spots  and  now 
throwing  its  twilight  rays  over  a  larger  surface — but  the 
Cross  was  its  meridian  altitude.  Nor  "  shall  the  sun  ever 
go  down,  nor  the  moon  withdraw  itself."  As  this  is  the 
last  dispensation  of  the  divine  mercy,  so  is  it  the  last  the 
divine  government  will  ever  assume.  There  cannot  be  a 
better.  "  There'  remaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sin." 
There  cannot  be  a  greater  and  there  will  not  be  a  less. 
Under  this  form  of  government,  with  this  redeeming  God 
and  Saviour  at  its  head,  the  world  will  move  forward 
to  its  close.  The  dynasty  of  Moses  has  passed  away ; 
the  sceptre  of  the  Prophets,  too,  is  laid  low  j  but  they 
have  been  succeeded  by  "  a  kingdom  which  cannot  be 
moved,"  and  under  whose  alone  influence,  he  who  died 
as  a  malefactor  and  rose  as  a  Prince,  will  "  rule  and 
defend  his  church,  and  restrain  and  conquer  all  his  and 
her  enemies."  The  changing  dispensations  of  the  past 
have  been  superseded  by  this  permanent,  this  last  econ- 
omy.   "  Little  children,"  says  the  beloved  John,  "  this 


40  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS. 

is  the  last  time.^^  "  Now  in  the  end  of  the  world,^^  says 
another  apostle,  "  he  hath  appeared  to  put  away  sin  by 
the  sacrifice  of  himself." 

To  my  own  mind,  this  is  an  affecting  thought.  To  have 
in  our  hands  the  last  communication  of  his  truth  which 
the  God  of  love  will  ever  make  to  lost  men ;  to  have 
bequeathed  to  us  the  last  Will  and  Testament  of  the 
expiring  Mediator ;  to  have  listened  to  his  voice  for  the 
last  time  until  he  shall  speak  with  the  voice  of  the  Arch- 
angel and  the  trump  of  God  ;  may  well  awaken  emotions 
that  cannot  be  uttered,  and  lead  us  to  feel  that  all  other 
interests  and  claims  are  insignificant  compared  with  the 
interests  of  immortal  truth  and  the  claims  of  the  Cross. 
This  is  the  thought  that  fired  the  ardent  mind  of  Paul, 
in  one  of  the  most  glowing  arguments  he  ever  uttered  : 
"  See  that  ye  refuse  not  him  that  speaketh.  For  if  they 
escaped  not  who  refused  him  that  spake  on  earth,  much 
more  shall  not  we  escape  if  we  refuse  him  that  speaketh 
from  heaven  :  whose  voice  then  shook  the  earth ;  but 
now  he  hath  promised,  saying,  yet  once  more  I  shake 
not  the  earth  only,  but  also  heaven.  And  this  word, 
once  more,  signifieth  the  removing  of  those  things  that 
are  made,  that  those  things  which  cannot  be  shaken  may 
REMAIN."  He  caught  the  thought  from  the  lingering 
notes  of  the  Prophet  Haggai,  who  long  before  had  sung, 
"  For  thus  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  yet  once,  it  is  a  little 
while,  and  I  will  shake  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and 
the  sea  and  the  dry  land,  and  the  Desire  of  all  nations 
shall  come.''  Now  the  time  had  arrived  ;  it  was  the  last 
mutation,  the  final  revolution  in  the  divine  government, 
until  this  world  should  pass  away  and  the  elements  of 
which  it  is  composed  melt  with  fervent  heat.  Already 
had  the  voice  shook  the  earth,  when  Sinai  trembled,  and 
Moses  introduced  the  dispensation  of  the  law.     But  there 


THE    TRUTH    OF    THE    CROSS.  4^ 

was  to  be  yet  one  more  voice,  that  should  shake  not 
the  earth  only,  but  also  heaven.  It  was  his  "who  in 
time  past  spake  unto  the  fathers  by  the  Prophets,"  and 
who,  "  in  these  last  days,  hath  spoken  to  us  by  his  Son." 
This  was  the  great  change,  abolishing  all  former  dispen- 
sations, itself  never  to  be  abolished,  but  to  remain  among 
the  things  that  cannot  be  shaken.  The  truth  as  disclosed 
from  his  Cross  who  was  the  desire  of  all  nations,  is  firm  as 
the  ordinances  of  heaven.  And  now,  if  any  say,  "  Lo, 
here  is  Christ,  or  lo,  there  !"  believe  them  not.  If  false 
prophets  appear,  as  they  have  done  in  ages  past,  and  are 
appearing  still,  claiming  new  intercourse  with  heaven 
and  new  and  further  revelations ;  if  they  cannot  be  re- 
claimed, they  must  be  left  to  their  own  idiot  dreams  and 
mad  delusions.  However  varied  the  successes  of  this  dis- 
pensation of  divine  truth,  and  however  great  the  inequali- 
ties that  may  mark  its  wondrous  progress,  there  will  be 
no  other  within  the  bounds  of  time.  What  is  last  in 
God's  appointment  may  well  be  first  in  our  estimation — 

"  The  last  in  nature's  course  ;  the  first  in  wisdom's  thought." 

Men  who  are  saved  by  this,  need  no  greater,  no  other  sal- 
vation ;  men  who  are  not  saved  by  it,  will  find  no  greater, 
and  require  no  less.  "  He  that  is  holy  shall  be  holy 
still ;  and  he  that  is  filthy  shall  be  filthy  still." 

Such  is  the  truth  of  the  Cross.  It  must  be  believed, 
loved  and  obeyed.  It  has  no  false  coloring,  no  mere- 
tricious garb.  If  you  doubt  its  importance,  go  and  learn 
it  from  Gethsemane  and  Calvary.  If  you  find  it  hard  to 
be  understood,  seek  light  at  the  feet  of  its  great  Author.  It 
has  no  cold  and  philosophical  abstractions,  and  no  lifeless 
morality.  It  is  not  the  mysticism  of  theory,  nor  the  sen- 
timentalism  of  feeling,  but  the  truth  and  love  of  God 
coming  down  upon  the  soul,  and  fitting  it  for  Heaven. 


42  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CROSS. 

Human  theories  live  for  a  day  ;  the  truth  of  God  abideth 
forever.  Men  gaze  at  human  theories  as  they  gaze  at  a 
meteor  when  it  flashes  across  the  heavens,  but  leaves 
no  trace  of  the  path  it  describes  ;  while  the  light  of  the 
Cross  is  never  extinguished,  and  the  mind  in  contempla- 
ting it  never  becomes  weary.  It  has  indeed  forbidding 
features  ;  but  it  may  not  be  forgotten  that  those 
very  features  which  are  so  repulsive  to  men  who  are  dead 
in  sin,  constitute  its  most  powerful  attractions  to  those 
whose  hearts  are  right  with  God. 

Allow  me  then  affectionately  to  inquire  at  the  bosom 
of  the  reader,  if  he  loves  the  truth  of  the  Cross  ?  It  is 
not  a  vain  thing,  for  it  is  for  your  life.  "  Life  and  death, 
the  blessing  and  the  curse,"  are  yours,  as  you  fall  in, 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    CROSS   AN    EFFECTIVE   PROPITIATION    FOR    SIN. 

Men  must  have  a  religion ;  and  if  they  reject  the 
religion  of  the  Bible,  they  will  devise  one  for  themselves. 
What  the  religion  is  which  they  thus  devise  is  not  a 
matter  of  theory.  Facts  tell  us  what  it  is.  The  entire 
narrative  of  Paganism,  both  ancient  and  modern,  shows 
that  the  religion  of  the  Pagan  world  is  a  religion  of  ter- 
ror, and  that  its  most  important  rites  and  institutions  are 
sustained  by  its  appeals  to  a  guilty  conscience.  There 
is  that  in  every  human  bosom,  in  virtue  of  which,  every 
deed  of  wickedness  visits  the  perpetrator  with  more  or 
less  of  the  bitterness  of  compunction.  Benighted  and 
erring  as  it  is,  conscience  everywhere  summons  man  be- 
fore her  bar  as  a  culprit ;  she  tries  him,  and  finds  him 
guilty.  The  religion  of  conscience,  therefore,  is  a  self- 
condemning  religion,  and  its  altars  are  altars  of  hlood. 
For  ages  upon  ages,  hlood  has  been  flowing  through  the 
temples  of  heathen  idolatry.  From  the  seven  nations  of 
Canaan  that  were  cut  off  by  Joshua,  to  the  more  bright 
periods  of  Assyrian  and  Egyptian  history — from  refined 
Greece  and  Rome,  through  the  successive  ages  of  Gallic, 
German  and  Saxon  history,  down  to  the  modern  nations 
of  the  East,  men  have  erected  altars  to  the  Sun,  to  the 
moon,  to  the  stars ;  to  demons,  and  hero-gods ;  to  Mo- 
loch, Ashtaroth  and  Baalam ;  to  Juno,  to  Bacchus,  to 


44  THE    CROSS   AN    EFFECTIVE 

Diana,  to  Woden ;  whose  worship  consisted  in  the  most 
horrid  acts  of  criieUy  and  blood.  The  practice  of  shed- 
ding human  blood  on  the  aUars  of  idol  gods  has  not  been 
peculiar  to  any  one  age  of  the  world.  Even  at  the 
present  day,  the  car  of  Juggernaut,  and  the  Pagoda 
of  our  own  western  savages,  are  stained  with  the  blood 
of  men.  This  is  a  remarkable,  as  well  as  melancholy 
fact  in  the  history  of  our  race.  Men  have  no  natural  in- 
stincts to  gratify  in  offering  human  sacrifices ;  it  is  a 
moral  instinct  which  leads  them  to  it ;  it  is  with  the  view 
of  averting  the  displeasure  of  the  offended  Deity.  It  is 
conscience,  clamorous  for  reparation,  and  demanding 
amends  for  human  wickedness.  Conscience  requires 
obedience,  or  the  penalty  of  disobedience  ;  nor  is  it  in 
the  power  of  man  to  dissolve  the  wrathful  bond.  Sin 
deserves  punishment,  because  it  is  sin.  The  connection 
between  crime  and  suffering  is  founded  in  the  moral  na- 
ture of  man,  and  is  absolutely  indestructible.  Conscience 
establishes  it  by  her  immu'table  sentence  that  the  trans- 
gressor is  "  worthy  of  death  ;"  reason  confirms  it  by  her 
immutable  convictions  that  God  is  just ;  while  the  his- 
tory of  Divine  Providence  recognizes  it  in  the  perdition 
of  the  most  exalted  race  who  "  kept  not  theh  first  estate," 
and  in  the  misery  and  woes,  the  sighing,  agony  and 
death  which  reign  in  a  world,  originally  filled  only  with 
expressions  of  the  Creator's  goodness. 

The  demand  is  not  therefore  one  of  minor  importance, 
which  is  made  by  the  Prophet,  "  Wherewithal  shall  I 
come  before  the  Lord,  or  bow  myself  before  the  High 
God !"  It  is  no  easy  matter  to  persuade  a  man  who 
"  is  fallen  by  his  iniquity,"  and  who  is  deeply  sensible 
that  he  deserves  to  perish,  that  there  is  a  refuge  from 
the  coming  wrath.  He  may  discover  some  probabilities 
of  pardon ;  he  may  indulge  some  flickering  hopes  :  but 


PROPITIATION    FOR    SIN.  45 

these  occasional  flashes  from  the  dark  sky  do  not  compose 
his  fears.  Nor  are  they  tranquilized,  nor  can  they  be, 
until  the  storm  has  spent  its  fury,  and  he  sees  the  rain- 
bow painted  on  the  cloud.  Such  a  man,  more  especially 
if,  in  the  days  of  his  thoughtlessness  and  vanity,  he  has 
had  loose  notions  of  the  divine  justice  and  presumptuous 
expectations  from  the  divine  mercy,  is  much  more  dis- 
posed to  believe  that  God  cannot  be  just  and  pardon, 
than  that  he  would  be  unjust  to  punish  and  destroy.  To 
stand  on  a  strong  and  immovable  foundation,  he  must 
be  placed  in  the  position  where  justice  has  no  claims 
upon  him,  and  where  the  penalty  of  the  law  is  satisfied, 
because  all  his  sins  are  atoned  for.  This  is  the  only 
solace  for  the  wounded  conscience ;  this  is  the  refuge  the 
sinner  needs ;  it  is  the  refuge  furnished  by  the  Cross, 
because  the  Cross  furnishes  the  only  effective  propitiation 
for  his  sins. 

Modern  Jews,  the  ancient  heretics  who  maintained 
that  Christ  was  a  mere  man,  Mahometans,  Socinians 
and  Infidels,  are,  so  far  as  my  knowledge  extends,  the 
only  sects  that  have  ever  affirmed  that  God  forgives  sin 
without  regard  to  an  atonement.  There  is  no  intimation 
of  pardon  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  except 
through  a  piacular  sacrifice.  The  great  truth  recognized 
in  the  bloody  sacrifices  throughout  the  patriarchal  age, 
was  the  doctrine  of  expiation.  Under  the  Mosaic  dis- 
pensation, the  offerings  appointed  by  God,  as  an  atone- 
ment for  sin,  consisted  of  animals  that  were  slain,  and 
whose  blood  was  offered  on  their  altars.  "  The  life  of 
the  flesh  is  in  the  Mood  :  I  have  given  it  to  you  upon  the 
altar,  to  make  an  atonement  for  your  souls  ;  for  it  is  the 
blood  that  maketh  an  atonement  for  the  soul.'^  Nothing 
is  more  obvious  from  the  Jewish  ritual,  than  that  it  was 
the  design  of  God  to  teach  his  ancient  church  the  indis- 


46  THE    CROSS    AN    EFFECTIVE 

pensable  necessity  of  an  atonement  in  order  to  procure 
the  forgiveness  of  sin.     The  entire  history  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  from  their  deliverance  out  of  Egypt  to  the  final 
overthrow  of  their  civil  and  ecclesiastical  polity,  is  writ- 
ten in   the  blood   of    their   sacrifices — repeated    every 
morning  and  evening,  on  every  Sabbath  and  at  every 
new  moon,  and  with  emphatic  solemnity  on  the  annual 
recurrence  of  the  great  "  day  of  atonement;  "  while  for 
sins  that  could  not  be  pardoned,  but  were  punished  with 
death,  there  was  no  appointed  expiation.     If  we  look 
into  the  New  Testament,  we  find  this  great  truth  more 
distinctly,    and,  if  possible,  more  abundantly  revealed. 
The  sufferings  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  himself  the 
only  personage  in  human  nature  against  whom  law  and 
justice,  either  of  earth  or  heaven,  could  prefer  no  claim, 
cannot  be  accounted  for  under  the  righteous  government 
of  God,  on  any  other  principle,  than  that  he  was  "  cut 
off  not  for  himself."     Never  would  he  have  uttered  that 
heart-rending    and    unansw^ered    cry   in    Gethsemane, 
"  Father,  if  it  be  possible  let  this  cup  pass  from  me,"  nor 
ever  have  bowled  his  head  on  the    Cross,  were  there  any 
other  than  "  redemption  through  his  blood."     If  there 
had  been  "  a  law  that  could  have  given  life,  verily  right- 
eousness should  have  been  by  the  law."     It  "  became 
him  by  whom  are  all  things,  and  for  whom  are  all  things, 
to  make  the  Captain  of  their  salvation  perfect  through 
suffering."      This  is  heaven's  high  method  of  mercy. 
"  Without  the  shedding  of  blood,  there  is  no  remission." 
Nor    are   the   reasons    for   this   decision   unrevealed. 
"  Clouds  and  darkness  are  round  about  him,  but  justice 
and  judgment  are  the   habitation  of  his  throne.^''     The 
throne  of  God  is  built  and  stands  firm  only  upon  the  prin- 
ciples of  righteousness  and  judgment.      They  are  the 
place,  the  habitation,  the  basis  of  his  government.     I  do 


PROPITIATION    FOR    SIN,  47 

not  see  how  men  can  question  the  necessity  of  an  atone- 
ment, who  are  themselves  the  friends  of  justice ;  who 
celebrate  its  praises  as  many  a  celestial  anthem  cele- 
brates them ;  who  feel  towards  it  as  God  himself  feels. 
Under  the  imperfect  administration  of  human  laws,  jus- 
tice may  be  attempered  with  mercy.  It  should  be  so 
attempered,  not  only  because  the  administration  is  im- 
perfect, but  because  it  is  written,  "  Vengeance  belongeth 
unto  me;  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord."  Human  laws, 
in  their  best  form,  are  professedly  and  always  founded 
upon  considerations  of  expediency,  and  never  graduate 
the  punishment  of  the  offender  by  the  ascertained  and  exact 
measure  of  his  ill-desert.  Justice,  simple  justice^  calls  for 
merited  punishment ;  and  in  the  divine  government  it  is 
determined  by  the  ill-desert  of  the  transgressor.  In  men, 
it  may  be  a  flexible  principle,  and  lead  to  a  vacillating 
policy  ;  but  not  in  God.  It  is  an  essential  perfection  of 
the  Divine  Being.  It  is  his  nature.  If  there  had  been 
no  creatures  for  him  to  govern,  or  no  transgressors  of  his 
law  to  punish,  he  would  still  have  been  a  Being  of  un- 
changeable, invincible  justice.  It  belongs  to  his  nature 
as  truly  as  his  spirituality,  or  his  goodness,  or  his  power. 
"  Thou  art  not  a  God  that  hath  pleasure  in  wickedness, 
nor  shall  evil  dwell  with  thee."  It  were  just  as  impossi- 
ble for  him  to  forgive  sin  in  the  way  of  sovereignty,  or 
by  any  arrangement  of  mere  expediency  and  general 
benevolence,  and  without  regard  to  the  claims  of  equity 
and  moral  principle,  as  it  were  for  him  to  be  unjust.  In 
pardoning  the  guilty,  his  prerogatives  as  the  sovereign 
are  merged  in  his  obligations  as  the  Lawgiver.  Justice 
demands  the  punishment  of  the  transgressor,  and  forever 
stands  in  the  way  of  his  exercising  pardon  as  a  mere 
sovereign.  Nor  is  this  a  fancied  difficulty,  nor  one  which 
any  strength  or  ardor  of  love  may  leap  over,  or  break 


48  THE    CROSS    AN    EFFECTIVE 

through.  What  he  once  views  as  sinful,  his  always 
views  as  sinful ;  what  he  once  views  as  deserving  pun- 
ishment, he  always  views  as  deserving  punishment ;  and 
what  he  is  once  disposed  to  punish,  he  is  always  disposed 
to  punish.  He  has  proclaimed  this  disposition  in  his 
law ;  nor  is  it  a  parade  of  authority,  or  an  empty  de- 
claration, nor  is  it  any  the  worse  for  being  violated  or 
executed.  Nor  is  there  any  reason  for  waiving  the  execu- 
tion of  it,  unless  that  reason  be  found  in  a  satisfactory 
atonement.  If  there  be  good  and  solid  reasons  why  the 
penalty  should  be  inflicted  where  no  atonement  exists, 
there  are  the  same  reasons  why  an  atonement  is  called 
for  if  the  penalty  be  remitted.  God  was  not  bound  to 
forgive ;  it  was  not  necessary  for  him  to  forgive ;  but  if 
he  does  gratify  his  love  in  acts  of  pardon,  he  owes  to 
himself,  and  to  that  everlasting  difference  between  right 
and  wrong  which  he  himself  has  established,  to  do  it  in 
a  way  that  satisfies  and  supports  his  immutable  justice. 

The  necessity  for  the  sacrifice  of  the  Cross,  therefore, 
is  absolute.  It  is  a  necessity  that  is  felt  in  all  the 
stages  of  Christian  experience  ;  and  where  it  is  not  felt, 
there  is,  there  can  be,  no  Christianity.  Unbelief  in 
Christ  as  a  Saviour  is  a  necessary  part  of  unbelief  in 
God  as  a  Judge.  Men  despise  his  mercy,  because  they 
do  not  respect  his  justice.  One  of  the  first  lessons  which 
the  anxious  sinner  learns,  is  to  feel  his  need  of  Christ. 
His  conscience  finds  no  relief,  nor  can  it  ever  be  dis- 
burdened of  its  mighty  woes,  save  at  the  Cross.  I  have 
never  known  a  man  awakened  to  a  sense  of  his  sin  and 
danger  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  however  loose  his  religious 
training,  and  however  unscriptural  his  previous  views  of 
truth,  who  had  not  the  most  unqualified  conviction  that 
the  Cross  was  his  only  hiding  place,  and  who  had  not  the 
utmost  horror  of  all  his  former  refuges  of  lies.    The  most 


PROPITIATION    FOR    SIN.  49 

Stout-hearted  sinner  needs  but  to  be  under  this  divine 
teaching,  in  order  to  feel  that  that  sacred  victim  bleed- 
ing on  Calvary,  and  he  alone,  can  keep  him  from  despair. 

It  is  not,  as  some  have  supposed,  an  improper  inquiry 
to  be  instituded.  How  do  the  sufferings  and  death  of  the 
Cross  constitute  an  effective  propitiation  for  sin?  Atone- 
ment is  an  expiation,  or  an  expiatory  equivalent.  It 
is  that  which  makes  amends  for  an  offence,  so  that  the 
offender  may  be  pardoned.  It  is  a  reparation  which  is 
made  by  doing  or  suffering  that  which  is  received  as  a 
satisfaction  for  the  injury  committed.  By  the  Christian 
atonement,  I  understand  that  satisfaction  to  divine  jus- 
tice  made  by  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Christ,  in  the 
room  and  stead  of  sinners,  in  virtue  of  which  pardoning 
mercy  is  secured  to  all  who  believe  the  Gospel.  It  may 
be  desirable  to  present  a  brief  view  of  the  different  parts 
of  this  general  position. 

The  propitiation  of  which  we  are  speaking,  consists  in 
the  sufferings  and  death  of  Christ.  His  instructions  and 
his  example  do  not  form  the  matter  of  his  atonement ; 
nor  ought  his  prophetic  and  priestly  offices  to  be  thus 
confounded.  The  pardon  of  sin  is  not  procured  except 
by  his  sufferings,  by  the  influence  of  his  death,  and  that 
simply  by  its  expiatory  power.  To  award  him  no  other 
honor  than  that  he  came  as  a  divine  teacher,  is  to  put 
him  upon  a  level  with  his  own  apostles ;  to  take  the 
crown  from  his  head  ;  to  have  no  part  in  the  song, 
"  Unto  him  that  redeemed  us  unto  Ood  by  his  blood.^' 
Whoever  undertakes  to  atone  for  the  sins  of  men  must 
suffer.  His  arrangement  is  with  penalty.  As  the  au- 
thority of  the  law  lies  in  its  penalty,  so  the  emphasis  of 
the  atonement  lies  in  the  sufferings  of  the  Mediator. 
And  hence  the  prominence  which  the  sacred  writers 
give  to  the  Cross.  Hence  it  is,  too,  that  the  trembling 
3 


^ 


50  THE    CROSS    AN    EFFECTIVE 

conscience  is  always  directed  b)^  the  Spirit  of  God  to  the 
hlood  of  the  guiltless  victim.  The  steady  though  slowly- 
burning  flame  that  is  lighted  up  in  the  bosom  of  the 
transgressor,  is  extinguished  only  by  that  fountain  of  sor- 
rows. It  is  upon  his  sacerdotal  office,  upon  the  altar 
where  he  bled,  upon  the  ignominy  and  woes  of  the  last 
scene  and  the  last  sighs,  that  Christian  hope  rests  all  her 
expectations.  A  suffering  Saviour  is  the  glory  of  the 
Gospel,  and  involves  truths  which,  if  once  subverted,  the 
Christian  structure  is  in  ruins.  Nor  do  I  regard  the 
thought  as  a  trivial  one,  that  the  sufferings  of  Christ 
were  truly  and  properly  penal.  They  were  penal, 
and  not  disciplinary.  Nor  were  they  simply  declaratory 
and  instructive;  for  if  this  were  their  main  design,  I 
see  not  why  they  might  not  have  been  spared,  nor  why 
all  the  solemn  lessons  they  read,  are  not  read  from  the 
fiery  walls  of  the  prison  where  men  and  angels  suffer  to 
show  that  God  is  holy,  and  sin  is  vile.  It  is  doubtless 
true  that  the  sufferer  did  not  endure  the  penalty,  nor 
was  the  sentence  of  the  law  to  the  very  letter  executed 
upon  him.  Yet  were  his  sufferings  penal,  because  they 
were  inflicted  by  justice,  and  imposed  in  execution  of  a 
legal  sentence.  They  were  executed  in  the  form  of  jus- 
tice ;  and,  though  not  the  penalty  the  law  incurred,  were 
accepted  in  the  place  of  it,  and  as  a  full  equivalent. 

In  order  to  constitute  the  sufferings  of  Christ  an  effect- 
ive propitiation  for  sin,  they  were  endured  in  the  room  and 
stead  of  those  who  themselves  deserve  the  curse.  They 
were  truly  and  properly  vicarious.  This  is  a  truth  not 
free  from  difficulties  ;  and  had  there  been  no  revelation 
from  heaven,  we  should  be  slow  in  believing  it.  But 
since  God  has  revealed  it,  we  receive  it  with  adoring  thank- 
fulness, and  can  only  express  our  lasting  admiration  of 
the  unsearchable  riches  of  his  wisdom  and  mercy  which  it 


PROPITIATION    FOR    SIN.  53^ 

discloses.  If  we  look  back  to  the  covenant  with  Adam, 
we  find  "  the  figure,"  the  nucleus,  the  germ  of  this  truth, 
in  the  fact  that  he  was  the  representative  and  substitute 
of  his  race.  "  By  the  offence  of  one,  judgment  came 
upon  all  men  to  condemnation."  The  great  doctrine  of 
substitution  was  thus  early  revealed,  vvhich  is  perfected 
in  the  suff^erings  of  the  "  Word  made  flesh."  If  man 
fell  in  the  person  of  his  representative,  why  may  not  a 
representative,  in  carrying  into  effect  that  same  economy 
of  grace,  suffer  for  him  ?  Both  these  divine  arrange- 
ments stand  or  fall  together.  We  do  not  mean,  by  sub- 
stitution, a  transfer  of  the  moral  character  of  the  trans- 
gressor to  the  representative ;  for  this  is  impossible. 
The  sins  of  men  did  not  and  could  not  make  Christ  a 
sinner.  Nor  is  there  anything  in  this  substitution  that 
removes  personal  criminality  from  the  transgressor ;  for 
no  substitution,  no  personal  punishment  even,  can  ever 
make  the  guilty  innocent.  A  vicarious  sacrifice  does 
not  diminish  or  palliate  the  criminality  of  sin,  much 
less  take  it  away.  It  assumes  the  sinner's  obligation 
to  punishment.  The  substitution  of  Christ  imports  that 
the  sins  of  the  transgressor  are  set  down  to  his  account, 
and  so  imputed  to  him  that  he  endures  the  punishment 
of  them  in  the  transgressor's  place.  He  stands  in  law 
just  where  the  sinner  stands,  and  takes  upon  himself  its 
curse.  The  penal  debt  of  the  believer  is  thus  canceled, 
and  his  account  with  the  law  settled  by  the  suflferings  of 
his  surety.  Such  was  most  certainly  the  import  of  the 
sacrifices  under  the  Levitical  law.  They  were  substi- 
tuted for  the  offerer  ;  the  offerer  deserved  to  die,  and  the 
innocent  victim  stood  in  his  place.  The  whole  transac- 
tion indicated  that  the  punishment  due  to  the  offender 
was  transferred  to  the  appointed  sacrifice  ;  and  its  great 
design  was  a  significant  prefiguration  of  that  great  act  of 


52  THE    CROSS    AN    EFFECTn'E 

divine  justice  which  imposed  upon  the  Lamb  of  God  sins 
not  his  own.  "  Surely,"  says  the  Prophet,  "  he  hath 
borne  our  griefs ;  he  hath  carried  our  sorrows.  The 
Lord  hath  laid  upon  him  the  iniquity  of  us  all."  The 
memorable  words  of  the  Saviour  to  his  disciples,  at  the 
institution  of  the  Supper,  were,  "  This  is  my  blood  which 
was  shed  for  you.'^  "  He  suffered,"  says  the  Apostle, 
"the  jiist  for  the  unjust;'^  he  "bore  our  sins  in  his 
own  body  on  the  tree  ;"  he  was  "  made  a,  curse  for  us.^^ 

The  manner  in  which  the  death  of  Christ  is  connected 
with  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  is  therefore  clearly  revealed. 
The  weakest  and  the  strongest  believer,  the  most  holy 
and  the  most  imperfect  child  of  God,  have  remission  of 
sins  only  because  his  sufferings  come  in  place  of  theirs. 
If  the  Scriptures  give  any  definite  information  on  this 
great  subject,  a  subject  on  which  of  all  others  they  are 
full  and  explicit,  they  teach  that  the  undeserved  suffer- 
ings of  the  Cross  come  in  the  place  of  the  deserved  suf- 
ferings of  all  those  who  by  faith  make  this  sacrifice  their 
own,  and  that  they  are  thus  regarded  and  accepted  by 
the  great  Lawgiver.  I  have  yet  to  learn  the  only  founda- 
tion of  a  sinner's  hope,  if  it  be  not  in  the  penal  suffering 
and  death  of  Christ,  in  the  room  and  stead  of  the  guilty, 
and  as  an  accepted  satisfaction  to  the  justice  of  God. 

I  have  said  that  the  Cross  is  an  effective  propitiation 
for  sin  ;  and  by  this  is  meant  that  there  is  that  in  the 
death  of  Christ  which  possesses  this  expiatory  power. 
The  substitution  of  the  innocent  for  the  guilty  is  a  singu- 
lar fact  in  the  history  of  the  divine  government.  It  is  no 
ordinary  procedure.  Nothing  like  it  has  ever  existed. 
"  It  seems  to  stand  by  itself,  an  insulated  department  of 
Divine  Providence."  It  originated  with  the  offended 
Lawgiver,  and  was  sanctioned  in  the  counsels  of  his 
own  profound  and  unsearchable  wisdom.   It  was  no  in- 


PROPITIATION    FOR    SIN.  53 

justice  to  the  Sufferer  of  Calvary,  because,  on  his  part,  it 
was  perfectly  voluntary  ;  the  relation  he  bore  both  to 
Deity  and  humanity  eminently  qualified  him  for  this 
arduous  work  ;  while  the  infinite  excellence  of  his  divine 
character  imparted  a  consideration,  a  value  to  his  intense 
and  unequaled  sufferings,  that  rendered  them  an  all-suf- 
ficient and  effective  propitiation  "  through  faith  in  his 
blood."  The  sentence  of  the  law  is,  "  The  soul  that 
sinneth  shall  die;''''  and  the  voice  of  the  Archangel,  the 
sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven, 
the  irrevocable  sentence  and  the  lake  of  fire,  proclaim 
what  that  death  shall  be.  And  it  is  no  more  i\\Si\\  justice., 
and  the  sinner's  due.  The  transgressor  is  bound  in  jus- 
tice to  suffer  it,  and  the  Lawgiver  is  bound  in  justice  to 
inflict  it.  It  is  by  thus  punishing  the  sinner  according  to 
his  ill-desert,  that  the  claims  of  eternal  justice  are  as- 
serted ;  the  foundation  of  the  eternal  throne  stands  firm, 
and  the  assurance  made  sure,  that  the  "  wages  of  sin  is 
death.  The  sufferings  of  Christ  constitute  an  effective 
propitiation  for  sin  by  securing  these  high  and  important 
ends.  The  divine  Lawgiver  himself  being  judge,  there 
is  the  same  justice  in  the  death  of  his  Son  that  were 
found  in  executing  the  penalty  of  the  law  with  rigid  im- 
partiality upon  the  person  of  the  transgressor.  When 
Zaleucas,  the  Italian  lawgiver,  enacted  the  law  that 
adultery  should  be  punished  with  blindness,  and  his  own 
son  was  the  first  transgressor,  he  honored  the  law  by 
putting  out  one  of  the  eyes  of  his  son,  and  one  of  his 
own.  Imperfect  as  the  resemblance  is,  this  was  a  sort 
of  atonement,  because  it  showed  that  rather  than  the 
law  should  remain  unexecuted,  the  lawgiver  himself 
would  share  the  penalty  with  the  offender.  The  selected 
substitute  in  this  great  redemption  was  not  one  in  whom 
the  Eternal  Father  had  no  interest,  and  to  whom  he  felt 


54  THE    CROSS    AN    EFFECTIVE 

no  attachment.  It  was  not  an  enemy,  it  was  no  alien 
to  the  court  of  heaven,  nor  was  it  the  loftiest  and  most 
favored  of  adoring-  angels,  that  descended  from  the  high 
and  holy  place  to  direct  his  way  towards  Calvary  and  the 
curse.  It  was  God,  with  and  like  himself,  distinctly 
comprehending  the  greatness  and  bitterness  of  the  work 
he  had  undertaken,  "  traveling  in  the  greatness  of  his 
strength,"  and  in  his  own  agonies  furnishing  an  ex- 
emplification of  the  claims  of  primitive  justice,  such  as 
was  never  seen  before,  and  will  never  be  repeated.  We 
have  already  told  the  story  of  the  Cross  ;  but  how  little 
do  we  know  of  that  bitter  cup,  conscious  as  the  Mighty 
Sufferer  was  of  his  majesty  as  God,  and  his  meanness  as 
a  worm,  emptied  of  all  his  glory,  unsupported  and  alone 
in  his  tremendous  conflict  with  the  powers  of  darkness  ! 
The  law  he  had  undertaken  to  satisfy  showed  him  no 
mercy  ;  and  in  vain  do  we  search  the  annals  of  the  uni- 
verse for  justice  if  it  be  not  here.  We  look  to  the  Cross, 
and  feel  that  God  is  just.  Nor  can  we  resist  the  impres- 
sion that  the  same  justice  which  awoke  against  the  Son, 
if  directed  against  the  guilty,  would  kindle  a  flame  that 
never  could  be  quenched.  In  its  eflficacy  in  accomplish- 
ing the  great  ends  of  law,  of  justice,  the  propitiation  of 
the  Cross  is  not  surpassed  by  the  literal  execution  of  the 
penalty  of  the  law.  Does  the  law  show  that  God  is 
just?  so  does  the  Cross.  Does  the  law  proclaim  the  sin- 
ner's ill  desert?  so  does  the  Cross.  Is  the  law  the  ap- 
pointed guardian  and  protector  of  the  divine  government  1 
so  is  the  Cross.  Is  the  law  the  unsleeping  preserver  of 
the  order  and  security  of  the  universe  1  so  is  the  Cross. 
Does  the  sacredness  of  the  divine  character,  and  its  un- 
compromising rectitude,  and  its  consuming  jealousy,  and 
its  stainless  honor,  shine  in  all  fearful  radiance  in  the  law  ? 
so  do  they  shine  in  equal,  in  superior  splendor  in  the  Cross. 


PROPITIATION    FOR    SIN.  55 

This  then  is  the  one  of  the  attractions  of  the  Cross. 
Here  is  the  religion  of  conscience^  because  there  is  here 
an  effective  propitiation  for  sin.  Conscience,  which, 
with  so  much  inquietude,  looks  elsewhere  in  vain,  here 
finds  the  repose  it  seeks  for.  This  oppressive  burden, 
these  inward  convictions  of  guilt,  are  relieved  by  the 
assurance  that  "  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from 
all  sin."  That  blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant,  while 
it  makes  the  conscience  more  sensitive  and  tender,  at  the 
same  tune  renders  it  tranquil,  because  it  is  the  unfailing 
token  of  peace  with  God.  As  a  sinner  who  deserves  to 
die,  and  uttering  the  messages  of  mercy  to  my  fellows  in 
sin  and  guilt,  I  love  to  dwell  on  this  great  characteristic 
of  the  Cross,  "  a  just  God  and  a  Saviour."  It  discloses 
a  "  new  era  in  the  government  of  God,  and  a  new  crea- 
tion to  the  hopes  of  men."  It  unfolds  that  deep  design, 
the  reconciliation  of  justice  and  mercy.  The  eternal 
throne  henceforth  rests  on  this  mountain  of  the  covenant ; 
and  though  justice  still  guards  it  by  her  even  balances 
and  her  flaming  sword,  mercy  is  its  highest  adornment. 
Parted  at  the  primeval  apostacy,  mercy  and  justice  meet 
at  the  cross,  there  to  mingle  their  exultations  in  the  par- 
don of  the  guilty  through  the  atonement  of  the  guiltless. 

I  know  not  what  interest  the  reader  feels  in  this  view 
of  the  Cross  of  Christ.  The  great  atonement  is  a  work 
that  is  finished,  and  the  scene  now  lies  on  the  page  of 
history.  As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilder- 
ness, even  so  has  the  Son  of  Man  been  lifted  up.  But 
it  is  not  like  the  history  of  other  facts  in  which  we  had 
nothing  to  do,  and  in  which  we  ourselves  did  not  bear  a 
part.  No  living  man  has  the  warrant  thus  to  sever  him- 
self from  the  Cross  of  Jesus ;  nor  can  he  do  it,  but  by 
his  own  voluntary  and  cherished  unbelief.  Like  the 
cloud  in  the  wilderness,  the  Cross  has  a  dark  and  a  bright 


55  THE    CROSS    AN    EFFECTIVE 

side  ;  but  its  dark  side  is  towards  its  enemies.  If  ye  would 
not  be  numbered  with  its  enemies,  go  up  and  lay  your 
hand  on  the  head  of  its  guiltless  sufferer.  And  though 
you  were  the  malefactor  at  his  side,  he  would  hear  the 
cry,  ''  Lord  remember  me,  when  thou  comest  into  thy 
kingdom !" 

The  Cross  should  banish  despair.  Is  it  not  enough 
that  "  Christ  has  died?"  Is  it  not  enough  that  the  be- 
liever, instead  of  paying  the  penalty  of  the  law  himself, 
may  present  the  sufferings  of  Christ  ?  Justice  asks  no 
more  than  wdiat  faith  thus  offers.  Does  conscience,  with 
her  voice  of  thunder,  still  proclaim  that  you  deserve  to 
die  ?  There  is  One  who  died  for  you.  The  Cross  says 
to  the  believer,  that  if  there  is  One  who  died  for  him,  in 
that  very  death  he  himself  died.  The  law  is  satisfied 
with  the  substitution.  "  Christ  is  the  e7id  of  the  law  to 
every  one  that  belie veth."  "  There  is  now  no  condem- 
nation to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus."  Faith  may  be 
confident  here.  Nay,  she  may  triumph,  and  hold  aloft 
her  deed  of  absolution  sealed  with  blood.  The  Cross 
should  prevail  over  unbelief  and  despair.  It  should 
enkindle  hopes  that  never  wither,  and  are  full  of 
immortality.  Shame  on  this  weakness  !  "  Who  shall 
separate  you  from  the  love  of  Christ  ?" 


■  Brightness  of  the  Father's  glory, 
Shall  thy  praise  unuttered  lie  ? 
Fly,  my  tongue,  such  guilty  silence. 
Sing  the  Lord  who  came  to  die. 


"Did  the  angels  sing  thy  coming  ? 
Did  the  shepherds  learn  their  lays  ? 
Shame  would  cover  me,  ungrateful, 
Should  my  tongue  refuse  to  praise. 


PROPITIATION    FOR    SIN  57 

'  From  the  highest  throne  in  glory, 
To  the  cross  of  deepest  woe — 
All  to  ransom  guilty  captives — 
Flow  my  praise,  forever  flow. 

'  Go,  return,  immortal  Saviour- 
Leave  thy  footstool,  take  thy  crown  ; 
Thence  return  and  reign  forever — 
Be  the  glory  all  thine  own  !" 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    CROSS   THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION. 

It  is  a  truth  universally  received  among  Christians, 
that  there  is  no  other  propitiation  for  sin  except  that 
offered  by  the  Son  of  God  on  the  Cross.  The  Scriptures 
dwell  on  this  truth  with  such  frequency  and  force,  that 
it  cannot  be  considered  in  any  other  light  than  as  one  of 
the  primary  truths  of  the  Christian  revelation.  They  in- 
struct us  that  "  there  is  no  other  name  given  under  heaven 
whereby  we  must  be  saved  but  the  name  of  Christ ;" 
that  "  no  other  foundation  can  any  man  lay,  than  that  is 
laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ ;"  and  that,  this  propitiation 
rejected,  "  there  remaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sin." 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  instances  not  a  few,  the 
want  of  clear,  impressive  and  strong  views  of  this  one 
truth  lies  at  the  foundation  of  great  doctrinal  and  practi- 
cal errors.  The  same  high  importance  belongs  to  the 
priestly  office  of  Christ,  that  belongs  to  his  prophetic  and 
regal  offices.  It  is  not  more  true  that  his  Spirit  is  the 
only  infallible  Teacher,  and  that  no  human  traditions, 
and  no  decisions  of  men,  may  supersede  his  unerring  in- 
structions— that  he  himself  is  the  sole  and  only  King  in 
Zion,  and  that  none  may  share  with  him  the  honors  and 
prerogatives  of  his  throne — than  that  he  is  the  only 
propitiation — himself  the  altar — himself  the  Priest — him- 


THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION.  59 

self  the  sacrifice — himself  the  "  author  and  finisher"  of 
the  whole  work. 

It  is  easy  to  conceive  of  a  less  atonement  than  this 
stupendous  oflfering-.  It  might  have  been  the  oflfering  of 
some  mere  man,  exalted  above  his  fellows,  and  pure  and 
stainless ;  it  might  have  been  some  exalted  and  holy 
seraph  ;  it  might  have  been  some  super-angelic  nature  ; 
or  it  might  have  been  some  family,  or  tribe,  or  province, 
who  should  have  been  appointed  and  given  their  consent 
to  die  in  the  place  of  the  fallen.  Either  of  these  would 
have  been  a  sacrifice  infinitely  inferior  to  that  which  was 
made  by  "  God  manifest  in  the  flesh."  Such  are  the 
greatness  and  glory  of  the  second  Person  in  the  ever- 
blessed  and  adorable  Godhead,  that  none  hesitate  to  be- 
lieve that  it  had  been  unspeakably  desirable  that  he 
should  have  been  spared  the  degradation  of  our  nature, 
and  the  agonies  of  the  Cross,  if  there  could  have  been 
any  less  sacrifice.  Had  there  been  any  other  thus  "mighty 
to  save,"  by  none  would  such  a  substitute  have  been 
hailed  with  greater  joy,  or  more  intense  delight,  than  the 
Eternal  Father  himself,  who  appointed  his  own  Son  to 
this  fearful  service.  Looking  over  the  universe  he  had 
made,  to  see  who,  among  them  all,  was  competent  thus  to 
bring  salvation  to  a  lost  race,  "he  saw  that  there  was  no 
man,  and  wondered  that  there  was  no  intercessor  ;  there- 
fore his  arm  brought  salvation  unto  him,  and  his  righteous- 
ness sustained  him."  The  Saviour  himself  would  not 
have  sought  and  acccepted  this  high  trust,  could  it  have 
been  conducted  to  safe  and  honorable  issues  by  another ; 
nor  was  it  except  in  view  of  the  ineflficacy  of  all  other 
sacrifices,  that  he  said,  "  Lo,  I  come ;  in  the  volume  of 
the  book  it  is  written  of  me,  I  delight  to  do  thy  will,  0 
God  !"  It  had  been  impious  in  another  to  have  proposed 
himself  for  such  a  service.     No  other  than  the  uncreated 


60  THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION 

One  had  "  power  to  lay  down  his  hfe  and  take  it  again ;" 
no  other  had  any  worthiness  or  merit  beyond  that  which 
he  himself  owed  to  the  laAV  Avhich  man  had  violated ;  no 
other  had  the  rank  and  dignity  that  could  impart  the 
adequate  consideration  and  value  to  his  sacrifice ;  no 
other  could  have  borne  the  mighty  burden  which  om- 
nipotent justice  must  have  laid  upon  him  for  the  expia- 
tion of  human  guilt.  If  God,  in  human  nature,  Jiimself 
sunk  under  it,  what  created  intelligence  was  adequate  to 
the  burden?  The  redemption  of  our  race  had  been 
hopeless  and  utterly  impossible  by  any  less  sacrifice. 
To  look  for  such  a  sacrifice  only  leaves  the  appalling 
question  unanswered,  "How  can  man  be  just  with  God  ?" 
Humanity  and  Deity,  therefore,  personally  united  in  the 
great  Immanuel,  constituted  the  sacrifice.  What  can  give 
worth  to  his  death,  render  him  a  complete  and  all-sufld- 
cient  Saviour,  effectively  reconcile  the  claims  of  justice  and 
mercy,  and  spread  the  "  glory  that  excelleth  "  over  the 
great  work  of  his  redemption ;  if  not  God  in  human 
nature  voluntarily  submitting  to  an  ignominious  and 
painful  death,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  justice  of  his  own 
law,  and  thus  reveal  "the  grace  that  bringeth  salvation  ?" 
This  is  a  point  too  plain  for  argument,  and  is  merely 
submitted  to  our  inspection.  Is  not  this  a  marvelous 
procedure?  Can  created  minds,  or  the  uncreated  mind, 
conceive  of  a  greater,  or  more  effective  propitiation  1  Can 
unsearchable  wisdom  furnish  one  more  wise ;  infinite 
love  one  more  touching ;  omnipotent  power  one  more 
diflScult  to  be  accomplished  ;  inflexible  justice  one  which 
it  is  more  sure  to  sanction ;  or  heavenly  grace  one  by 
which  it  can  secure  more  or  greater  triumphs  1  What 
greater  purposes  can  be  accomplished  by  an  expiatory 
sacrifice  than  are  accomplished  by  the  Creator  thus  at- 
taching himself  to  a  creature ;  power  thus  uniting  itself 


THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION.  gj 

with  weakness ;  heaven  with  earth ;  God  with  man : 
encountering  that  storm  of  wrath  which  discharged  itself 
on  the  Cross,  for  the  long  thought  of  and  settled  purpose 
of  bearing  the  penalty  incurred  by  apostate  man  ? 

If  then  there  may  not  be  a  less  propitiation  for  sin  than 
that  which  Christ  has  made,  and  cannot  be  a  greater, 
there  is  but  this  one  sacrifice.  Let  us  then  consider 
somewhat  more  at  length  the  practical  importance  of 
this  truth.  It  is  a  truth  which  enters  deeply  into  the 
whole  theory  and  practice  of  a  pure  Christianity.  Reli- 
gion in  the  world,  religion  in  the  heart,  lives  or  dies  with 
the  one  great  expiation  for  sin.  It  is  by  this  one  offering  that 
men  are  saved,  in  opposition  to  the  notion  that  they  are 
saved  without  any  propitiation  at  all.  This  great  article  of 
the  Christian  faith  meets  with  no  more  subtil  or  rigorous 
opposition  than  from  the  unchristian  thought  that  this  re- 
demption is  needless.  The  foolishness  of  God  is  wiser  than 
the  reasoning  pride  of  men.  Without  the  presumption  of 
deciding  what  the  God  only  wise  may  or  may  not  per- 
form, it  is  enough  that  he  has  taught  us,  that  although 
ever  willing  and  ready  to  forgive,  he  does  so  in  a  way 
that  best  comports  with  the  honored  claims  of  justice. 
It  is  impossible,  with  the  utmost  stretch  of  human  inge- 
nuity, to  evade  the  force  of  the  instructions  of  the  Bible 
on  this  subject.  With  those  to  whom  this  part  of  our 
subject  is  applicable,  the  question  is  not  whether  there 
be  one  propitiation  for  sin,  or  many,  but  whether  there 
be  forgiveness  with  God  as  an  arbitrary  act  of  mercy, 
without  any  satisfaction  to  justice. 

If  God  be  true,  and  his  decisions  meet  a  ready  response 
in  the  claims  of  conscience,  one  complete  and  all-suffi- 
cient sacrifice  there  must  be,  else  there  is  no  foundation 
for  human  hope.  Men  who  reject  the  death  of  Christ 
as  the  propitiation  for  human  guilt,%dopt  another  religion 


62  THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION. 

than  that  revealed  in  the  Gospel.  They  have  not  the 
religion  of  heaven ;  they  love  not  its  truths ;  they  par- 
take not  of  the  spirit  of  its  song ;  they  have  no  supreme 
honors  for  its  redeeming  God  and  King.  How  the  man 
can  be  kept  from  sinking  into  despair,  who  deliberately 
and  pertinaciously  disbelieves  the  one  sacrifice  of  the 
Lamb  of  God,  is  more  than  God  has  revealed.  To  do 
this  is  to  deny  the  "  Lord  that  bought  him,  and  bring 
upon  himself  swift  destruction."  The  only  terms  of 
reconciliation  between  God  and  man  were  fulfilled  on  the 
Cross.  That  God  will  be  merciful  to  sinners  in  some 
way  which  has  no  respect  to  the  great  Mediator,  is  a 
most  delusive  and  ruinous  notion,  if  the  God  of  Heaven 
be  just.  The  sympathies  of  heaven  and  earth  may  be 
enlisted  for  the  transgressor  of  the  divine  law  ;  but  if 
there  be  no  propitiation  for  his  offences,  if  he  has  not 
this  one  hope,  this  one  name  of  Jesus  to  rest  upon,  he 
cannot  be  restored  to  the  favor  of  an  offended  God.  If 
the  death  of  Christ  as  a  true  and  proper  sacrifice  for  sin 
be  taken  from  the  Bible,  of  all  books  is  that  book  of  God 
the  most  unintelligible,  and  the  most  full  of  perplexity. 
The  sacred  pages  teach  us  that  "  we  have  forgiveness 
of  sins  through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus;" 
nor  is  there  a  descendant  of  fallen  Adam  who,  in  any 
age  of  the  world,  or  in  any  clime  has  found  peace  to  the 
troubled  conscience,  hope  to  the  sinking  heart,  else- 
where. 

The  one  offering  of  Christ  is  also  the  only  hope  of 
men  in  distinction  from  the  many  sacrifices  of  the  pagan 
world.  There  are  few  expressions  of  the  perfect  impo- 
tence of  the  human  mind  to  devise  for  itself  a  satisfactory 
religion  more  significant  than  those  combined  efforts  of  a 
darkened  understanding  and  an  erring  conscience,  by 
which  men  in  pagan  tands  have  endeavored  to  reinstate 


THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION.  53 

themselves  in  the  favor  of  God,  and  restore  those  peace- 
ful and  happy  communications  with  him  which  have 
been  disturbed  and  broken  off  by  sin.  It  would  seem  as 
thoug-h  the  soul  of  man  had  not  lost  all  impressions  of 
what  it  once  was ;  that  there  still  clings  to  it  the  instinct- 
ive and  indestructible  thought  of  its  high  origin  and  its 
ultimate  destination ;  and  that  there  is  still  to  be  found 
in  it  a  confused,  and  yet  in  some  sort  an  irrepressible, 
seeking- after  God.  It  is  a  wanderer,  an  exile;  yet  in 
seeking  to  find  its  way  back  to  its  native  skies,  it  only 
plunges  deeper  into  the  dark  wilderness.  From  the 
brutal  savage  who  prostrates  himself  at  the  feet  of  some 
hideous  idol,  to  the  more  cultivated  nations  who  worship 
the  sun ;  from  those  primitive  ages  which  offered  to  the 
Creator  the  fruits  of  their  harvest  fields,  to  those  more 
degraded  nations  whose  worship  consists  in  acts  of  ob- 
scenity and  blood ;  all  give  evidence  that  rather  than 
live  and  die  without  any  religion,  they  choose  one  that 
is  ever  so  false  and  absurd.  The  great  principle  of  hu- 
man nature  on  which  natural  religion  is  founded  would 
seem  to  be  conscious  guilt,  and  the  consequent  fear  of  the 
divine  displeasure.  Costly  and  cruel  sacrifices  ever  have 
been,  and  are  now,  heaped  upon  the  altars  of  the  pagan 
world,  and  their  shrines  are  sprinkled  with  the  blood  and 
stained  with  the  gore  of  men.  To  all  these  unnatural,  in- 
effectual and  sinful  sacrifices,  the  Scriptures  oppose  the 
one  divinely  authorized  and  effectual  sacrifice  of  the  great 
Redeemer.  This  one  offering  meets  every  demand  that 
can  be  made  upon  it  by  the  intelligence,  the  guilt,  the  fear, 
the  misery,  the  instinctive  cravings  of  man  as  an  immor- 
tal being.  These  ten  thousand  other  sacrifices  do  but  add 
guilt  to  guilt,  and  agony  to  agony ;  and  while  they  do 
violence  to  every  natural  feeling  of  the  human  heart,  give 
neither  inward  comfort  nor  outward  reformation.    Before 


64  THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION, 

the  Cross  the  fables  of  Paganism  disappear;  incerti- 
tude is  banished  by  the  certainties  of  a  true  faith.  The 
corruptions  of  men  arc  reformed,  their  spirit  is  regenera- 
ted, by  this  one  offering.  Human  reason  finds  an  object 
here  worthy  of  its  inspection,  and  the  more  she  studies 
it  the  more  does  she  find  employment  for  her  largest  in- 
telligence— with  more  and  still  more  gratified  attachments 
does  she  exclaim,  '^  0,  the  depth  of  the  riches,  both  of 
the  wisdom  and  the  knowledge  of  God!"  The  heart, 
everywhere  else  sterile  and  empty,  is  here  filled  with  the 
love  and  the  fullness  of  God  ;  and  the  wearied  conscience, 
which  elsewhere  finds  not  a  place  for  the  sole  of  her  foot 
to  rest  upon,  here  finds  the  ark  of  mercy.  All  other  reli- 
gions are  the  devices  of  men — this  the  device  of  heaven's 
unsearchable  wisdom  and  love.  It  stands  one  and  alone. 
All  other  religions  are  lost  and  swallowed  up  m  the  full- 
ness of  its  light,  the  plenitude  of  its  pardons,  the  power 
of  its  holiness.  Truth,  pardon,  and  holiness,  the  three 
things  so  essential  to  the  happiness  of  man,  and  which 
natural  religion,  restive  and  disappointed,  has  so  long 
sought  in  vain,  are  found  in  this  one  propitiation  of  the 
God-man  Mediator,  himself  alone  filling  the  mighty 
chasm  sin  has  made  between  man  and  God. 

This  one  offering  also  supersedes  the  multiplied  and  re- 
peated sacrifices  of  the  Jewish  ritual.  The  Jewish  ritual 
was  a  burdensome  religion.  The  first  seven  chapters  of 
Leviticus  are  employed  in  giving  a  general  account  of 
the  different  kinds  of  sacrifices  which  God  commanded  to 
be  offered  ;  and  these  constituted  by  no  means  the  whole 
of  the  offerings  under  that  grevious  and  costly  economy. 
Yet  was  it  a  ritual  to  which  the  Jews  had  been  for  so  many 
centuries  accustomed — one  which  was  attended  with  so 
much  outward  splendor,  and  to  which  they  were  so 
strongly  wedded — that  it  was  then,  and  is  still,  worn  and 


THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION.  55 

dilapidatad  as  it  is,  the  great  obstacle  to  the  introduction 
and  prevalence  of  Christianity  among-  that  bigoted  peo- 
ple. It  was  their  great  snare  to  apostacy  after  they  be- 
came Christians ;  and  it  was  to  admonish  them  against 
this  besetting  danger — besetting  them  wherever  they 
were  scattered  abroad — that  important  portions  of  the 
New  Testament  were  written. 

The  sacrifices  of  the  Hebrew  economy  accomplished 
the  design  for  which  they  were  intended ;  but  they 
were  never  intended  to  be  real  atonements  for  sin.  There 
were  great  and  obvious  defects  in  them  which  were  reme- 
died only  by  the  high  and  exalted  character  of  the  great 
High  Priest  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  and  the  per- 
fection and  efficacy  of  his  sacrifice.  No  angelic  minis- 
tration could  conduct  the  Church  of  God  to  her  heavenly 
inheritance  ;  angels  were  but  the  servants  of  Christ,  their 
true  and  only  Lord.  Nor  could  Moses  ;  who  was  him- 
self but  a  menial  in  God's  house,  compared  with  Christ 
the  Son  and  heir.  Nor  could  Aaron,  with  his  long  suc- 
cession of  priests  and  costly  and  bloody  sacrifices.  They 
were  all  imperfect  and  sinning  men,  "  compassed  with 
infirmity,"  and,  by  "reason  thereof,  ought,  as  for  the 
people  so  also  for  themselves,  to  offer  for  sins."  Christ 
was  "  holy,  harmless,  undefiled,  separate  from  sinners, 
who  needeth  not  daily,  as  those  High  Priests,  to  offer  up 
sacrifice  first  for  his  own  sins,  and  then  for  the  sins  of  the 
people ;  for  this  he  did  once  when  he  offered  up  himself." 
They  were  "many  priests,"  because  they  were  "  not  suf- 
fered to  continue  by  reason  of  death;"  but  Christ, 
"  because  he  continueth  forever,  hath  an  unchangeable 
priesthood,  and  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  that 
come  unto  God  by  him,"  in  all  places,  through  all 
times,  under  all  dispensations. 

The  sacrifices  under  the  Jewish  dispensation  were  but 


66  THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION. 

prefig-urative  of  the  great  Christian  sacrifice  ;  the  "  sha- 
dow of  good  things  to  come ;"  the  outline  of  the  great 
reahty  ;  the  speechless  portrait  of  the  wondrous  original ; 
the  sculptured,  cold  and  marble  statuary  of  the  living 
person.  They  did  not  profess  to  remove  guilt  from  the 
conscience,  nor  impurity  from  the  heart ;  for  "  then  they 
would  not  have  ceased  to  be  offered,  because  that  the 
worshipers  once  purged  should  have  had  no  more  con- 
science of  sins."  "  In  those  sacrifices  there  is  a  remem- 
brance again  of  sins  every  year."  They  were  fitted  to 
remind  men  of  their  ill-desert  and  the  penalty  due  to 
their  transgressions.  They  did  no  more  than  this; 
"for  it  was  impossible  that  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats 
should  take  away  sin."  The  sacrifices  of  the  Jewish 
ritual  must  be  often  repeated,  while  the  sacrifice  of  Christ, 
offered  ^^  once  for  all,^'  accomplished  the  great  object 
for  which  it  was  offered.  "  This  man,  after  he  had 
offered  one  sacrifice  for  sins,  forever  sat  down  on  the  right 
hand  of  God."  His  work  of  propitiation  was  completed 
then,  "  For  by  one  offering,  he  hath  forever  prefected 
them  that  are  sanctified."  This  was  a  most  important 
lesson  to  be  inculcated  on  the  minds  of  the  doubting  and 
inconstant  Jews.  Their  own  Prophets  had  predicted  a 
sacrifice  which  should  effect  the  total  abolition  of  their 
own  sacrifices  ;  that  should  "  finish  the  transgression, 
make  an  end  of  sin,  make  reconciliation  for  iniquity, 
and  bring  in  everlasting  righteousness ;"  but  this  people 
were  "  slow  of  heart  to  believe  what  the  Prophets  had 
written."  Would  that  they  were  not  still  slow  of  heart 
to  believe  both  their  own  Prophets  and  their  own  Mes- 
siah! They  are  still  "beloved  for  the  Father's  sake," 
and  are  yet  to  be  gathered  in;  and  when  that  day 
arrives  and  they  "  come  in  with  the  fullness  of  the  Gen- 


THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION. 


67 


tiles,"  nothing  will  affect  them  more  deeply  than  their 
scornful  rejection  of  David's  Son  and  Lord.  They 
will  look  on  him  whom  they  "have  pierced,  and  mourn;" 
and  will  see  that  his  propititiation  is  the  only  foun- 
tain set  open  for  sin  and  uncleanness.  We  indeed,  as 
professed  believers  in  the  Christian  faith,  may  suppose 
that  this  contrast  between  the  many  and  repeated  sacri- 
fices of  the  Jewish  ritual,  and  the  one  sacrifice  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  has  no  relevancy  to  our  character  and  con- 
dition. But  it  deserves  to  be  engraved  on  our  hearts  as 
well  as  theirs.  It  involves  so  many  great  truths  and 
principles  that  are  essential  to  Christianity,  that  Gentiles 
as  well  as  Jews  are  concerned  in  it  as  one  of  the  most 
cogent  and  convincing  arguments  for  an  humble  and 
exclusive  reliance  on  the  one  Mediator  and  his  one 
sacrifice. 

"No  bleeding  bird,  nor  bleeding  beast, 
Nor  hyssop  branch,  nor  sprinkling  priest, 
Nor  running  brook,  nor  flood,  nor  sea. 
Can  wash  the  dismal  stain  away.  <" 

"  Jesus,  my  God,  thy  blood  alone 
Hath  power  sufficient  to  atone ; 
Thy  blood  can  make  me  white  as  snow, 
No  Jewish  types  could  cleanse  me  so." 

The  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  also  the  one  and  only  sacri- 
fice in  that  it  rebukes  all  the  vain  efforts  of  a  self-righteous 
religion.  No  truth  in  the  Gospel  is  more  plainly  revealed 
than  that  to  every  one  who  will  accept  the  blessings  of 
the  Gospel,  they  are  given  freely.  God  freely  gave  his 
Son  to  die  ;  his  Son  freely  offered  up  himself  a  sacrifice  to 
unto  God  for  us  ;  of  his  rich  and  free  grace  he  offers  all 
the  blessings  of  his  great  salvation  without  money  and 
without  price  j  of  grace,  infinitely  free,  though  sovereign 


68  THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION. 

and  discriminating,  the  Holy  Spirit  gives  repentance  and 
remission  of  sins.  It  is  all  gift  and  grace  from  beginning 
to  end.  "  The  wages  of  sin  is  death  ;  but  the  gift  of 
God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  This 
is  the  great  message  of  the  Gospel.  "  This  is  the  testi- 
mony of  God,  that  he  hath  given  us  eternal  life,  and  this 
life  is  in  his  Son."  Men  have  nothing  to  do  in  procuring, 
or  purchasing  it ;  nothing  to  do  in  deserving  it ;  nothing 
to  do  in  qualifying  themselves  to  receive  it.  They  have 
nothing  to  do,  and  nothing  to  give, for  it.  "  Who  hath 
first  given  to  the  Lord,  and  it  shall  be  recompensed  to  him 
again  ;  for  of  him,  and  through  him,  and  to  him,  are  all 
things."  Men  are  not  givers,  but  receivers ;  not  pur- 
chasers and  claimants,  but  beggars.  Instead  of  having 
any  merit  of  their  own,  they  are  eternally  indebted  to  the 
divine  justice,  and  have  nothing  to  pay.  They  are 
"  wretched,  and  miserable,  and  poor,  and  blind,  and 
naked  ;"  nothing  relieves  their  poverty  and  wretched- 
ness, but  they  are  the  rather  perpetually  accumulating 
and  increasing,  until  they  are  made  happy  in  the  Saviour's 
blessedness,  wealthy  in  his  riches,  wise  in  his  wisdom,  and 
clothed  with  the  pure  robe  of  his  righteousness,  that  the 
shame  of  their  nakedness  do  not  appear.  Yet  is  there  a 
strong  tendency  in  the  human  mind,  and  an  almost 
indomitable  desire  in  men,  to  put  themselves  upon  a  series 
of  self-sufficient  efforts,  to  work  their  own  way  to  heaven, 
*'  going  about  to  establish  their  own  righteousness,  and 
not  submitting  themselves  to  the  righteousness  of  God." 
The  spirit  of  self-righteousness  usually  expresses  itself 
either  by  performances  which  are  believed  to  be  available 
for  the  sinner's  salvation,  or  by  those  efforts  by  which 
men  hope  to  make  themselves  so  much  better  as  to  become 
the  fit  objects  of  divine  mercy.  The  moral  sinner  who 
hopes  to  receive  the  favor  of  God  by  his  morality,  while 


THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PK.OPITIATION.  QQ 

he  may  profess  to  depend  on  Christ  alone,  depends  on 
him  in  words  only,  and  not  in  heart.  The  religious  form- 
alist, who  hopes  to  secure  the  divine  favor  by  his 
prayers  and  religious  services,  while  he  professes  his 
dependence  on  Christ  alone,  is  at  heart  a  Pharisee,  and 
rejects  a  free  salvation.  The  anxious  and  inquiring  sinner 
who  confesses  that  he  is  unworthy,  and  feels  that  if  he 
were  not  so  great  a  sinner  he  might  find  mercy,  is  secretly 
cleaving  to  his  own  righteousness,  and  only  in  another 
form  cherishing  the  error,  that  if  he  were  but  a  better 
man  he  might  have  hope.  Now  the  simple  truth,  clearly 
seen  and  truly  felt,  that  there  is  no  other  sacrifice  for  sin 
except  that  offered  by  the  great  Mediator  ;  that  "  he  died 
unto  sin  once  ;"  that  he  "  hath  once  suffered  for  us,  the 
just  for  the  unjust,  that  he  might  bring  us  unto  God  ;" 
and  that  no  other  ground  of  acceptance  is  required,  or  is 
necessary,  not  only  cuts  up  these  self-righteous  hopes  root 
and  branch,  but  shows  their  absurdity  and  wickedness. 
It  show^s  their  absurdity  :  for  if  salvation  "  be  by  grace, 
then  it  is  no  more  of  works,  otherwise  grace  is  no  more 
grace ;"  and  "  if  it  be  of  works,  then  it  is  no  more  grace, 
otherwise  work  is  no  more  work."  It  shoAvs  their  wicked- 
ness :  for  it  evinces  their  hostility  to  God's  free  salvation, 
their  reluctance  to  be  under  obligation  to  Christ  alone, 
and  their  preference  to  their  own  wretched  performances 
over  the  great  work  of  Jesus  the  Lord.  It  shows  the 
secret  Simony  that  is  in  the  hearts  of  men,  in  that  they 
endeavor  to  stipulate  for  that  which  God  freely  bestows  ; 
to  procure  by  their  own  well-doing  what  nothing  but  the 
blood  of  his  Son  could  procure  ;  and  like  Simon,  vainly 
think  "the  gift  of  God  may  be  purchased  with  money." 
The  language  of  Christ's  one  sacrifice  is,  that  "  it  is  not  by 
works  of  righteousness  which  men  have  done,  but  accord- 
ing to  his  great  mercy,  that  they  are  saved."    Those  who 


70  THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION. 

hope  to  enter  into  life  in  any  other  way  than  by  Christ 
alone,  be  they  ever  so  moral,  and  ever  so  punctual  in  their 
outward  observance  of  religious  institutions,  will  have  a 
place  in  that  same  world  of  mourning-  which  is  prepared 
for  the  ungodly.  There  is  no  other  way  of  salvation 
for  the  best  sinner  than  God  has  provided  for  the  worst 
sinner.  Men  are  always  deceived  in  their  true  character, 
as  well  as  in  their  hopes,  when  they  look  away  from 
Christ  to  themselves.  "  I  know,  by  sad  experience," 
says  that  wonderful  man,  George  Whitfield,  "  what  it  is 
to  be  lulled  asleep  with  a  false  peace.  Long  was  I  lulled 
asleep.  Long  did  I  think  myself  a  Christian,  when  I 
knew  nothing  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I  used  to  fast 
twice  a  week.  I  used  to  pray  sometimes  nine  times  a  day. 
I  used  to  receive  the  Sacrament  constantly  every  Lord's 
day.  And  yet  I  knew  nothing  of  Jesus  Christ  in  my 
heart.  I  knew  not  I  must  be  a  new  creature.  I  knew 
nothing  of  inward  religion  in  my  soul."  This  then  is 
the  counsel  of  the  Mediator  of  the  new  covenant,  and  of 
that  great,  that  solitary  transaction,  which  veiled  the 
heavens  in  mourning.  "  Look  unto  me  and  be  ye 
saved ;"  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  are  weary  and 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest !" 

The  one  offered  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  likewise  a  truth  of 
great  importance,  as  condemning  the  error  of  those  who 
jiatter  themselves  that  there  will  he  some  method  of  mercy 
devised  hereafter  for  the  final  restoration  of  those  who  die 
in  their  sins.  Those  who  are  ensnared  by  this  fatal  error, 
adopt  it  on  different  grounds.  But  whatever  their  dif- 
ferent theories  may  be,  no  truth  in  the  Bible  is  so  fatal  to 
their  delusions  as  the  truth  that  it  is  "  by  one  offering 
that  God  hath  perfected  forever  them  that  are  sanctified." 
There  are  various  views  of  the  Cross  that  are  death  to 
the  hope  that  in  the  decisions  of  another  world  no  differ- 


THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION.  7J 

ence  will  be  made  between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked; 
or  that  if  there  be  a  difference  at  first,  all  will  at  last,  and 
in  some  unknown  period  of  the  boundless  future,  be 
gathered  into  the  Divine  Kingdom.  But  the  truth  we  are 
considering  is,  of  all  others,  the  most  absolutly  withering 
to  this  vain  hope,  this  soul-destroying  delusion.  The  error 
proceeds  upon  a  false  estimate  of  the  great  work  of  re- 
demption, and  of  the  great  difficulty  of  saving  men  at  all. 
Nothing  short  of  the  most  profound  and  unsearchable 
wisdom  could  have  devised  any  method  of  redemption. 
When  the  wicked  shall  stand  before  the  Great  Judge  at 
the  last  day,  they  will  be  condemned  for  having  rejected 
it.  If,  at  any  period  thereafter,  "  God  would  pardon  and 
save  them,  he  must  do  it  either  on  account  of  a  greater 
or  less  atonement  than  that  which  Christ  has  made,  or 
without  any  atonement  at  all.  But  it  is  certain  that  no 
greater  atonement  can  be  made  than  that  which  Christ 
has  made,  and  therefore  God  cannot  pardon  and  save 
them  on  account  of  an  atonement  greater  than  the 
atonement  of  Christ.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that  God  will  ever  pardon  and  save  them  on  account 
of  a  less  atonement  than  the  atonement  of  Christ, 
after  he  has  condemned  them  to  eternal  destruction 
for  rejecting  that  very  atonement.  And  if  he  will 
not  pardon  and  save  them  on  account  of  a  less  atonement 
than  the  atonement  of  Christ,  it  cannot  be  supposed 
that  he  will  pardon  and  save  them  without  any  atone- 
ment at  all."  These  considerations  would  absolutely 
shut  up  every  door  of  hope  to  those  who  finally  reject 
the  Gospel,  but  for  one  most  wondrovis  hypothesis ;  and 
that  is,  that  the  death  of  Christ  itself  may  possibly  be 
hereafter  7-epeated,  and  those  tremendous  scenes  of  Beth- 
lehem, Gethsemane  and  Calvary  be  acted  over  agam. 
This  bold  hypothesis  presents  a  subject  of  very  solemn 


72  THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION. 

and  awful  consideration.  It  must  strike  every  mind  that 
in  orig-inally  deciding  upon  the  death  of  Christ  as  the 
selected  method  of  mercy,  it  was  a  method  altogether 
peculiar,  and  above  the  researches  of  created  wisdom. 
"If  the  principle  of  substitution,^'  says  the  distin- 
guished Robert  Hall,  "be  at  all  admitted  in  the  opera- 
tion of  criminal  law,  it  is  too  obvious  to  require  proof  that 
it  should  be  introduced  very  sparingly,  only  on  very  rare 
occasions,  and  never  be  allowed  to  subside  into  a  settled 
course.  It  requires  some  great  crisis  to  justify  its  intro- 
duction— some  extraordinary  combination  of  difficulties, 
obstructing  the  natural  course  of  justice.  It  requires  that 
while  the  letter  of  the  law  is  dispensed  with,  its  spirit  be 
fully  adhered  to ;  so  that  instead  of  weakening  the  mo- 
tives to  obedience,  it  shall  present  a  salutary  monition, 
a  moral  and  edifying  spectacle.  Such  a  method  of  pro- 
cedure must  be  of  rare  occurrence,  and  to  this  circum- 
stance, whenever  it  does  occur,  its  utility  must,  in  a  great 
measure,  be  ascribed.  The  substitution  of  Christ  in  the 
room  of  a  guilty  race  receives  all  the  advantage  as  an 
impressive  spectacle,  which  it  is  possible  to  derive  from 
this  circumstance.  He  once  suffered  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world  ;  nor  have  we  the  least  reason  to  suppose 
any  similar  transaction  has  occurred  on  the  theatre  of 
the  universe,  or  will  ever  occur  again  in  the  annals  of 
eternity.  It  stands  amid  the  lapse  of  ages  and  the  waste 
of  worlds,  a  single  and  solitary  monument."  In  confirma- 
tion of  these  thoughts,  we  may  dwell  on  the  following 
instructive  passages  of  revealed  truth  :  "  Knowing  that 
Christ  being  raised  from  the  dead,  dieth  no  more  J  death 
hath  no  more  dominion  over  him  :  for  in  that  he  died,  he 
died  unto  sin  once,  but  in  that  he  liveth,  he  liveth  unto 
God."  "Now  once,  in  the  end  of  the  world,  hath  he  put 
away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself.     And  as  it  is  ap- 


THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION.  73 

pointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  but  after  this  the  judgment, 
so  Christ  was  once  offered  to  bear  the  sins  of  many  ; 
and  unto  them  that  look  for  him,  he  shall  appear  the 
second  time  without  making  himself  a  sin-offerings  unto 
salvation."  "By  the  which  will  we  are  sanctified 
through  the  offering  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  once  for 
all."  "  This  Man,  after  he  had  offered  one  sacrifice  for 
sin,  forever  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  God."  These 
are  truths  of  deep  and  solemn  import.  The  question  is 
decided,  that  Christ  dieth  no  more.  Oh,  who  is  there  that 
desires  that  he  should  travel  that  bloody  path  again,  and 
a  second  time  drink  of  that  cup?  Nor  would  it  be  of  any 
avail  to  the  incorrigible  despisers  of  his  salvation,  if  he 
should  again  bow  his  head  and  give  up  the  ghost.  They 
would  despise  him  still.  Their  day  of  grace  was  continued 
long  enough  to  try  their  character,  and  ascertain  their  de- 
cision ;  nor  was  it  cut  short,  nor  were  they  consigned  to 
their  own  place,  until  their  decision  was  irrevocably  formed 
to  remain  his  enemies,  and  the  fact  well  ascertained  that 
no  further  space  for  repentance  would  avail  them.  There 
is  nothing  in  the  flames  of  hell  to  subdue  an  obdurate  and 
malignant  heart,  but  everything  to  excite  and  irritate  and 
confirm  its  rebellion.  Were  the  blessed  Saviour  again  to 
disrobe  and  empty  himself,  and  descend  to  that  fearful 
world,  not  only  would  they  crucify  him  afresh,  but  scoff  at 
his  offered  mercy,  and  trample  it  under  their  feet.  "  No, 
there  remaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sins  !"  but  a  "  cer- 
tain fearful  looking  for  judgment  and  fiery  indignation 
that  shall  devour  the  adversaries."  Never  will  Christ  die 
again  ;  and  never  will  there  be  any  hope  for  those  who 
account  the  blood  of  the  covenant  wherewith  he  was 
sanctified  an  unholy  thing.  How  dreadful  is  the  condition 
of  the  man  who  is  beyond  the  reach  of  Christ!  Prize, 
O  prize  this  great  redemption  while  it  is  called  to-day. 
4 


74  THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION. 

To  these  thoughts  we  add  one  more.  The  death  of  Christ 
is  tlie  only  sacrifice  at  once  annihilating  the  uncommand- 
ed  sacrijices  still  offered  to  God  hy  a  human  priesthood. 
Of  the  many  forms  in  which  the  disposition  of  men  to 
magnify  the  importance  of  external  ordinances  over  a 
spiritual,  heart-religion,  expresses  itself,  none  is  more  per- 
nicious than  that  monstrous  system  which  is  held  in  the 
Church  of  Rome,  and  which  teaches  that  the  bread  and 
wine  in  the  Lord's  Supper  are  changed  into  the  substance 
of  Christ's  body  and  blood,  and  when  presented  by  the 
priest  to  God,  is  offered  as  a  true  and  living  sacrifice,  and 
when  thus  offered,  is  effectual  to  procure  the  pardon  of  sin. 
Some  portions  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
while  they  may  not  fully  believe  the  doctrine  of  transub- 
stantiation,  have  fallen  into  the  same  error  of  regarding 
the  Lord's  Supper  as  a  proper  and  real  sacrifice.  These 
misguided  persons  believe  that  as  often  as  this  festival  is 
celebrated,  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  on  the  Cross  is  virtu- 
ally repeated  and  solemnly  offered  to  God  in  order  to 
accomplish  their  salvation.  If  the  instructions  of  the  New 
Testament  may  be  relied  on,  every  other  priesthood  is 
done  away  and  absorbed  in  his,  who,  prompted  by 
love  to  the  souls  of  men,  left  the  bosom  of  his  Father, 
and  offered  up  himself  a  sacrifice  to  God  in  the  room 
and  place  of  guilty  men.  He  alone  is  qualified  for  this 
high  office ;  he  alone  is  called  to  it  of  God ;  he  alone  is 
accepted  in  his  great  priestly  character.  He  is  ordained 
a  Priest  forever,  "  not  after  the  law  of  a  carnal  com- 
mandment," but  after  "  the  power  of  an  endless  life." 
There  is  no  warrant  for  representing  the  Christian  min- 
istry a  priesthood  ;  nor  may  they  arrogate  to  themselves 
this  office  without  encroaching  on  the  prerogative  of  the 
great  High  Priest  of  the  Christian  profession,  and  ex- 
posing themselves  to  the  angry  rebuke  which  confounded 


THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION.  75 

and  consumed  the  sons  of  Aaron,  because  they  ap- 
proached the  altar  unbidden,  and  "  offered  strange  fire 
which  the  Lord  had  not  commanded."  The  scriptural 
definition  of  a  priest  is,  one  who  is  "  ordained  for  men  in 
things  pertaining  to  God,  that  he  may  offer  both  gifts 
and  sacrifices  for  sin.'^  Since  the  abolition  of  the  Jew- 
ish economy  and  the  death  of  Christ,  no  living  man,  no 
being  in  the  universe,  sustains  this  office,  save  the  Son 
who  is  consecrated  a  Priest  forevermore.  The  priests 
under  the  law  had  successors,  because  they  were  dying 
men :  our  great  High  Priest  has  no  successor,  because 
he  himself  "ever  liveth."  And  because  every  other 
priesthood  is  done  away  and  absorbed  in  Christ's,  every 
other  sacrifice  is  done  away  and  absorbed  in  his.  The 
pretence  of  repeating  it,  while  it  is  one  of  a  system 
of  errors  of  frightful  enormity,  is  evidence  of  great  moral 
blindness,  if  not  rash  and  reckless  impiety.  God  would 
have  men  feel  their  constant  dependence  on  this  one 
sacrifice,  once  offered.  They  need  no  other.  It  is  by 
the  power  of  this  finished  propitiation,  that  they  are  de- 
livered from  sin  and  hell,  and  adopted  as  his  returning 
children  into  his  divine  family  :  "  These  are  they,"  said 
one  of  the  Elders  about  the  throne  to  John  in  the  Reve- 
lation, "  which  came  out  of  great  tribulation,  and  have 
washed  their  robes,  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood 
of  the  Lamb."  They  follow  the  Lamb  wherever  he 
goeth ;  and  the  song  they  sing  is,  "  Worthy  is  the 
Lamb  that  was  slain,  to  receive  power,  and  honor,  and 
glory,  and  blessing !"  Take  heed,  that  "  no  man  beguile 
you  from  the  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ."  He  has  pro- 
cured your  reconciliation  to  God,  by  devoting  him- 
self to  the  death  of  the  Cross.  Here  is  the  strength  of 
your  faith,  and  the  vividness  of  your  joy.  Spiritual 
enjoyments  must  necessarily  decline  and  wither,  when- 


76  THE    CROSS    THE    ONLY    PROPITIATION. 

ever  you  lose  sight  of  this  "  one  offering."  Resources 
of  blessedness  are  here,  never  to  be  exhausted.  No  con- 
siderations of  unworthiness  or  ill-desert  should  obscure 
your  views  of  this  great  sacrifice.  That  God  is  willing 
to  pardon,  to  sanctify,  to  guide,  to  save,  we  know  as- 
suredly when  we  look  at  the  Cross.  It  is  only  "the 
Lamb  that  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  who  shall  feed 
you,  and  shall  lead  you  to  living  fountains  of  waters  ; 
and  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  your  eyes." 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE    ACTUAL   PURPOSE    OF    THE    CROSS. 

There  are  good  reasons  in  the  Divine  Mind  for  all 
those  expressions  of  his  holy  and  inscrutable  sovereignty 
which  are  made  both  in  his  works  of  creation,  provi- 
dence, and  redemption.  Nothing  is  gained,  but  every- 
thing is  in  danger  of  being  lost,  by  quarreling  with  the 
great  facts  Avhich  take  place  under  the  government  of 
the  "  God  only  wise."  What  is  difficult  to  us,  is  plain 
to  him  ;  what  to  us  is  dark,  to  him  is  enveloped  with 
light — pure,  unmingled  light.  "  God  is  light,  and  in 
him  is  no  darkness  at  all."  Fallen  men  are  made  to 
differ  from  fallen  angels,  without  any  apparent  reason  ; 
one  man  is  made  to  differ  from  another,  when  no  human 
intellect  is  able  to  assign  the  reason  why  "  one  is  taken 
and  another  is  left."  There  is  a  melancholy  equality  in 
the  moral  character  of  men.  They  are  all  born  under 
the  same  broken  covenant,  inherit  the  same  corrupt  na- 
ture, and  are  alike  exposed  to  the  wrath  and  curse  of 
God,  both  in  this  life  and  that  which  is  to  come.  Nor 
do  any  of  them  so  differ  in  the  outward  acts  and  expres- 
sions of  their  wickedness,  but  that  the  best  of  them  de- 
serves to  perish,  and  if  he  is  saved  must  attribute  his 
salvation  to  the  unspeakable  riches  and  sovereignty  of 
infinite  grace. 

The  divine  purposes  are  all  accomplished.  If  there 
were  no  other  method  of  learning  what  they  are,  we 
inay  read  a  part  of  them  at  least  in  the  history  of  the 


78  THE    ACTUAL    PURPOSE    OF    THE    CROSS. 

past.  Nor  have  we  any  more  reason  to  quarrel  with 
them,  than  we  have  with  the  facts  recorded  on  the  pages 
of  history.  When  that  Last  day  shall  come  on  which 
the  entire  history  of  our  race,  as  it  respects  the  present 
world,  shall  be  completed  and  recited,  it  will  be  but  the 
rehearsal  of  the  executed  purposes  of  God.  It  will  then  be 
seen  that  all  men  are  not  saved.  "  When  the  Son  of  Man 
shall  come  in  his  glory,  and  all  the  holy  angels  with 
him,  then  shall  he  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his  glory,  and 
before  him  shall  be  gathered  all  nations.  And  he  shall 
separate  them  one  from  another,  as  a  shepherd  divideth  his 
sheep  from  the  goats.  And  he  shall  set  the  sheep  on  his 
right  hand,  but  the  goats  on  the  left.  Then  shall  the 
king  say  unto  them,  on  his  right  hand.  Come,  ye  blessed  of 
my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world ;  while  to  them  on  his  left 
hand,  he  shall  say.  Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed,  into 
everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels. 
And  these  shall  go  away  into  everlasting  punishment, 
but  the  righteous  into  life  eternal.'"  In  our  Lord's  expo- 
sition of  the  parable  of  the  tares,  he  says,  "As  therefore, 
the  tares  are  gathered  and  burnt  in  the  fire,  so  shall  it  be 
in  the  end  of  the  world.  The  Son  of  Man  shall  send 
forth  his  angels,  and  they  shall  gather  out  of  his  king- 
dom all  things  that  oflTend,  and  them  that  do  iniquity, 
and  shall  cast  them  into  the  furnace  of  fire  ;  there  shall 
be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth."  Nothing  therefore 
is  more  clear  from  the  Scriptures,  than  that  it  is  not  the 
actual  purpose  of  the  Cross  to  save  all  mankind. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  fact  is  not  questioned,  that  a 
part  of  mankind  are  saved.  This  fact,  also,  is  but  the 
counterpart  of  the  divine  purpose ;  it  is,  it  was,  it  ever 
has  been,  the  divine  purpose  to  save  them:  Nor  can  there 
be  any  question  as  to  the  way  in  which  this  purpose  is 


THE  ACTUAL  PURPOSE  OF  THE  CROSS.     79 

carried  into  effect.  "There  is  no  other  name  given  un- 
der heaven  among  men,  by  which  they  must  be  saved," 
except  the  name  of  Christ.  "  No  other  foundation  can 
any  man  lay,  than  that  is  laid."  The  method  of  salva- 
tion is  the  Cross.  Other  objects  the  Cross  secures  ;  but 
its  great  object  is  the  redemption  of  a  part  of  mankind — 
"  a  peculiar  people,  that  they  should  show  forth  the 
praises  of  him  who  hath  called  them  out  of  darkness 
into  his  marvelous  light." 

It  deserves  consideration  whether  sufficient  prominence 
is  given  in  our  own  thoughts,  and  in  our  relative  views 
of  the  truth  of  God,  to  this  great  purpose  of  his  redeem- 
ing mercy.  I  confess,  when  I  contemplate  the  Cross,  and 
would  fain  commend  its  manifold  and  wondrous  attrac- 
tions, this  purpose  of  redeeming  mercy  seems  to  me  to  be 
the  great  and  master  purpose  of  the  Divine  Mind.  It  is 
the  purpose  which  has  the  greatest  extent  and  comprehen- 
siveness ;  which  reaches  from  everlasting  to  everlasting ; 
which  is  fortified  and  confirmed  by  every  other  purpose  ; 
which  acquires  additional  beauty,  dignity  and  importance, 
the  more  it  is  considered ;  and  which,  instead  of  being 
revealed  with  a  cautious  reserve,  courts  publicity,  and 
fearlessly  stands  out  as  the  principal  and  selected  means 
by  which  the  Infinite  One  glorifies  his  great  name.  To 
deny  or  disprove  this  purpose,  would  be  virtually  to 
deny  or  disprove  the  whole  Gospel.  The  great  first  prin- 
ciple of  the  Gospel  is,  that  it  is  the  actual  purpose  of  God 
to  save  a  great  multitude,  which  no  man  can  number,  by 
the  death  of  his  Son.  Take  away  this  purpose,  and  the 
Gospel  has  no  foundation ;  God  would  never  have  been 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  nor  should  we  ever  have  heard 
of  his  effective  propitiation  for  sin.  It  was  indeed  a 
mighty  movement  in  heaven  to  show  mercy  to  a  part  of 
our  guilty  and  wretched  race.     God  has  not  told  us  how 


30     THE  ACTUAL  PURPOSE  OF  THE  CROSS. 

many  there  are ;  but  he  has  tokl  us  that  they  are  nume- 
rous enough  to  give  the  Seed  of  the  Woman  the  most 
exulting  triumph  over  his  mahgnant  adversary,  and  to 
satisfy  him  for  all  the  humiliation,  and  shame,  and 
agonies  of  his  incarnation  and  death.  Men  may  com- 
plain that  the  persons  comprised  in  it  are  riot  more  in 
number ;  but  God,  whose  wisdom  and  goodness  are  as 
much  above  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  men  as  the 
heavens  are  above  the  earth,  sees  no  reason  for  making 
it  greater,  or  in  any  way  amending  or  altering  his  origi- 
nal design.  The  reason  why  he  does  not  alter  it,  is  that 
it  was  formed  in  unerring  wisdom,  and  that  to  change  it 
in  any  way  would  be  unwise. 

In  tracing  this  purpose  to  its  origin,  we  find  it  in  the 
love  of  God — the  goodness,  the  love  of  God,  "  having 
predestinated  us  unto  the  adoption  of  children  by  Jesus 
Christ  to  himself,  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  his 
will.''''  It  was  not  for  any  good  qualities  in  some,  rather 
than  in  others.  Manasseh,  and  Saul,  and  the  Corinthian 
converts,  w^ere  sufficiently  vile.  If  God  had  waited  for 
this,  he  had  waited  long  and  in  vain.  It  was  not  for  any 
foreseen  faith  and  holiness ;  for  these  are  his  gifts,  and 
the  very  things  which  the  Cross  secures.  All  spiritual 
blessings  come  to  the  saved  through  Christ,  "  according 
as  he  hath  chosen  them  in  him  that  they  should  be  holy." 
His  love  is  antecedent  to  ours.  "  We  love  him  because 
he  first  loved  us."  "  Ye  have  not  chosen  me,  but  I  have 
chosen  you,  and  ordained  you  that  ye  should  go  and 
bring  forth  fruit,  and  that  your  fruit  should  remain." 

This  actual  purpose  of  mercy  by  the  Cross  lay  in  the 
Divine  Mind,  in  all  its  parts  and  relations,  and  in  all  the 
means  by  which  it  is  accomplished,  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world.  It  was  a  covenant  arrangement  between 
the  three  sacred  Persons  of  the  ever-blessed  and  adorable 


THE  ACTUAL  PURPOSE  OF  THE  CROSS.     g^ 

Trinity.  So  far  as  the  Cross  is  concerned,  it  was  a  cove- 
nant between  the  Father  and  the  Son.  Hence  the  blood 
of  the  Cross  is  spoken  of  as  the  "  blood  of  the  covenant," 
and  "  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant."  There 
was  an  agreement  between  the  Father  and  the  Son,  as 
the  representative  of  his  people,  in  which  the  Father 
promised,  upon  condition  of  the  Son's  mediatorial  satis- 
faction and  obedience,  that  he  should  be  rewarded  by  the 
sanctification  and  salvation  of  his  people.  This  covenant 
Christ  accepted;  and  having  fulfilled  the  terms  of  it, 
became  entitled  to  his  reward.  Such  is  the  depraved 
character  of  men,  that  something  more  was  necessary,  in 
order  to  secure  their  salvation,  than  that  the  legal  impe- 
diments to  the  exercise  of  mercy  should  be  removed,  and 
the  offer  of  salvation  made  to  them.  Such  is  their  disaf- 
fection and  enmity  to  the  Cross,  that  no  love  of  God  in 
giving  his  Son  to  die,  no  compassion  and  tenderness  of 
the  crucified  Son,  no  offers  of  salvation  through  his  blood, 
no  promises,  no  threatenings,  no  reason,  no  conscience, 
can  prevail  with  them  to  accept  the  offered  salvation. 
Such  is  the  power  and  depth  of  human  apostacy,  that 
every  avenue  is  closed  against  the  calls  of  the  divine 
mercy,  and  not  one  of  all  the  race  is  found,  who,  if  left 
to  himself,  will  fall  in  with  the  gracious  overture.  If  the 
Cross,  therefore,  merely  throws  open  the  door  of  mercy — 
if  it  is  merely  accessible  to  all,  and  announces  to  all 
repentance  and  remission  of  sins — Christ  is  dead  in  vain  ; 
the  mercy  revealed  to  save,  actually  saves  none ;  there  has 
been  a  waste  of  atoning  blood  ;  the  heavens  have  bowed ; 
the  eternal  Son  has  expired,  not  merely  for  a  doubtful, 
but  a  desperate  enterprise.  The  covenant  of  redemption  ., 
was  designed  to  forestall  this  evil,  and  give  effect  to  the 
great  propitiation  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  thus  make 
the  actual  purpose  of  salvation  inseparable  from  the 
4* 


82  THE    ACTUAL    PURPOSE    OF    THE    CROSS. 

Cross  itself.  It  is  in  reference  to  this  purpose  that  the 
Saviour  says,  "  I  lay  down  my  life  for  the  sheep  ;"  "  All 
that  the  Father  giveth  me  shall  come  to  me ;"  that  the 
Apostle  speaks  of  the  ^^  church  of  God  purchased  hy  his  own 
blood  ;"  and  the  Prophet  declares,  "  For  the  transgres- 
sion of  my  people  was  he  stricken."  There  is  sovereignty 
in  the  Cross.  *'  He  hath  mercy  on  whom  he  will  have 
mercy."  "  Even  so.  Father,  for  so  it  seemed  good  in  thy 
sight!"  It  is  no  proof  that  the  counsels  of  Heaven's 
mercy  are  not  good,  because  they  are  unfathomable  by 
mortals.  Of  one  thing  we  may  be  satisfied,  from  what 
we  know  of  the  divine  goodness  and  the  all-sufficiency 
of  the  atonement,  that  the  purpose  of  saving  mercy  is 
thus  definite,  not  through  want  of  love  in  God  or  merit 
in  the  death  of  his  Son  ;  but  for  reasons  which,  however 
unknown  to  us,  no  atonement  could  reach,  and  no  sub- 
stituted sufferer  could  answer. 

It  is  a  glorious  purpose  thus  to  reward  the  ever-blessed 
and  suffering  Son.  Yes,  it  is  a  glorious  and  most  joyous 
purpose.  Think  of  it,  and  let  your  "soul  magnify  the 
Lord,  and  your  spirit  rejoice  in  God  in  your  Saviour  !" 
"  Because  he  poured  out  his  soul  unto  death,  and  was 
numbered  with  the  transgressors,  and  bear  the  sin  of 
many,  and  made  intercession  for  the  transgressors,  there- 
fore will  I  divide  him  a  portion  with  the  great,  and  he 
shall  divide  the  spoil  with  the  strong."  The  spoiler  had 
ruined  the  race  but  for  One  mightier  than  he,  and 
who  shall  "  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be  satis- 
fied." God's  unspeakable  gift  to  man  is  to  be  traced  up 
to  this  glorious  purpose. 

In  speaking  of  the  actual  purpose  of  God  to  save,  and 
to  save  through  the  death  of  his  Son,  we  are  not  to  over- 
look the  fact  that  the  means  by  which  this  purpose  is 
accomplished  form  a  part  of  the  purpose  itself.    The  pur- 


THE    ACTUAL    PURPOSE    OF    THE    CROSS.  gS 

pose  is  not  only  carried  into  effect  by  these  means,  but 
the  means  are  essential  to  the  purpose,  and  form  a  part  of 
it.  God  not  only  purposed  to  save,  but  through  whom, 
on  what  terms,  by  what  instrumentality,  under  what 
circumstances,  at  what  time ;  and  every  one  of  these 
means  constitutes  a  link  in  the  chain,  so  intimately  in- 
woven with  the  purpose,  that  without  it  there  is  no  pur- 
pose to  save,  and  can  be  none.  If  men  are  saved  by  the 
Cross,  they  must  become  acquainted  with  the  truth  of 
the  Cross,  and  be  taught  the  method  of  salvation  which 
it  reveals.  "  How  shall  they  believe  in  him  of  whom 
they  have  not  heard  1"  There  is  nothing  in  the  death 
of  Christ  to  save  men  who  are  ignorant  of  it ;  because 
the  divine  purpose  to  save,  is  to  save  only  through  the 
knowledge  of  the  Gospel.  The  purpose  itself  is  thus  a 
restricted  purpose,  and  limited  to  Christian  lands,  and  to 
those  in  Christian  lands  who  become  acquainted  with 
him  whom  God  has  sent.  The  sovereignty  of  God  in  the 
dispensations  of  his  grace,  is  here  exhibited  in  facts  which 
may  not  be  questioned.  There  are  entire  nations  whom 
he  has  given  over  to  a  reprobate  mind,  and  left  under  the 
veil  of  ignorance  and  error.  Men  are  born  in  millions 
during  ages  of  darkness  over  which  they  had  no  control, 
and  in  lands  of  darkness  where  their  birth  and  residence 
are  determined  by  a  providence  that  is  above  them. 
They  dwell  in  the  darkness  and  shadow  of  death  ;  and 
because  they  have  not  the  means  of  salvation,  they 
cannot  have  its  hopes.  They  are  not  guilty  of  rejecting 
what  God  does  not  offer  them  :  this  foul  sin  of  Christian 
lands  does  not  rest  upon  them.  But  they  have  all  sinned 
and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God,  and  therefore  inherit 
the  wages  of  sin,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  redeem- 
ing Saviour.  The  most  loose  and  indefinite  views  of  the 
atonement  would  recoil  from  the  conclusion  that  there 


84  THE    ACTUAL    PURPOSE    OF    THE    CROSS. 

is  any  purpose  of  mercy  at  all  towards  nations  who  re- 
main ig-norant  of  the  Gospel.  The  actual  purpose  of 
God  to  save,  is  also  a  purpose  that  all  those  who  partake 
of  this  salvation  must  not  only  become  acquainted  with 
the  Gospel,  but  at  heart  believe  it.  "  He  that  belie veth 
shall  be  saved,  and  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be 
damned. "  The  death  of  Christ  does,  indeed,  open  the 
door  of  hope ;  but  it  does  not  save  until  it  is  received 
and  confided  in. 

This  all-sufficient  redemption  is  limited  by  the  terms 
of  it ;  and  be  they  who  they  may,  all  those  who  do  not 
repent  and  believe  the  Gospel,  have  no  lot  and  no  part 
in  this  matter.  The  Cross  was  never  designed  to  give 
eternal  life  to  the  impenitent  and  unbelieving — to  men 
who  would  not  acknowledge  their  offence  and  thankfully 
accept  its  mercy  on  the  terms  on  which  it  is  offered. 
Christ  has  died,  and  through  his  death  God  can  now 
"be  just  and  the  justifier  of  him  that  believeth.^''  This  is 
the  sum  and  substance  of  his  atonement :  it  is  not  greater 
than  this,  and  knows  no  other  mercy.  There  cannot 
in  the  nature  of  the  case  be  an  effective  propitiation  for 
incorrigible  impenitence  and  unbelief.  A  man  may  be 
a  great  sinner  :  he  may  put  off  his  repentance  to  the  bed 
of  sickness  and  the  agonies  of  a  dying  hour;  but  if  at 
the  eleventh  hour  of  human  life  he  truly  repents  and 
believes  the  Gospel,  he  shall  find  that  all  his  sins  are 
atoned  for  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  But  if  his  im- 
penitence and  unbelief  continue  until  his  day  of  grace 
and  space  for  repentance  are  expired;  if  even  the  ap- 
proaching scenes  of  death  and  eternity  fail  to  awaken 
him  to  a  view  of  his  lost  condition  and  lead  him  to  the 
Saviour;  if  he  dies  as  he  has  lived,  the  enemy  of  God 
and  his  Christ;  is  there  any  cover  for  his  offences,  any 
satisfaction   for  his  crimes,  any  atonement  for  his  final 


THE  ACTUAL  PURPOSE  OF  THE  CROSS.     35 

impenitence?  An  affirmative  answer  to  this  question 
would  present  to  my  mind  the  most  palpable  absurdity. 
Is  there  any  ransom  for  such  a  man  ;  any  accepted  surety 
for  him  ;  or  any  satisfaction,  any  equivalent,  for  his  debt 
to  the  divine  justice  which  that  surety  has  rendered  ? 
Has  the  burden  of  that  man's  guilt  ever  rested  upon  an- 
other, or  does  it  forever  rest  on  his  own  soul  1  Was  Jesus 
Christ  delivered  for  his  offences,  or  has  he  in  any  way 
wrought  out  a  deliverance  for  him  from  the  place  of  tor- 
ment ?  I  suggest  these  thoughts  the  more  freely,  because, 
however  familiar  they  may  have  been  to  others,  it  is  not 
until  within  a  few  years  they  have  been  presented  to  my 
own  mind.  The  proposition  is  perfectly  intelligible,  that 
the  death  of  Christ  is  such  an  atonement  as  justifies  the 
Holy  Lawgiver  in  pardoning  every  one  that  believeth;  and 
in  this  truth  I  see  that  the  atonement  is  limited  by  the 
very  terms  on  which  it  is  proposed,  and  it  is  limited  by 
nothing  else.  It  is  just  as  unlimited  as  it  can  be;  God 
himself  cannot  make  it  more  so,  because  it  is  not  within 
the  compass  either  of  a  natural  or  a  moral  possibility,  to 
save  those  who  persevere  in  rejecting  it.  God's  purpose, 
God's  justice,  and  man's  unbelief,  all  unite  in  limiting 
it  to  true  believers.  The  proposition  is  also  equally  intel- 
ligible, that  the  death  of  Christ  is  such  a  satisfaction  to 
divine  justice  as  justifies  the  Holy  Lawgiver  in  pardoning 
the  incorrigible,  impenitent  and  unbelieving.  But  what  an 
utter  prostration  were  this  of  the  law  and  government  of 
God  !  Then  were  Christ  indeed  the  "minister  of  sin," 
his  death  the  constituted  indemnity  for  persevering  rebel- 
lion, and  his  Holy  Cross,  instead  of  being  the  great 
reformer,  were  the  great  corrupter  of  the  world.  The 
former  of  these  propositions  is  the  beautiful  view  given  of 
the  propitiation  of  the  Son  of  God  by  the  Scriptures ; 
honorable  to  God,  hallowed  in  its  character  and  influence, 


86  THE    ACTUAL    PURPOSE    OF    THE    CROSS. 

and  safe  for  man.  The  latter  is  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  the  grossest  Universalism,  striking  at  the  root  of  all 
experimental  religion,  confounding  all  distinctions  be- 
tween right  and  wrong,  and  bearing  the  signature  of  the 
"  father  of  lies."  Nor,  as  the  subject  presents  itself  to 
my  own  mind,  is  there  any  mid-way  position  between 
this  particular  redemption,  and  the  indiscriminate  salva- 
tion of  all  mankind.  Men  are  the  creatures  of  habit, 
and  it  is  a  very  difficult  thing  for  them  to  repel  the  force 
of  early  instructions.  The  phrase  "  particular  redemp- 
tion" may  have  been  incautiously  illustrated  by  some 
writers ;  but  does  it  not  express  the  great  truth  which 
Paul  utters  when  he  says,  "  Whom  God  hath  set  forth  to 
be  a  propitiation,  through  faith  in  his  bloody  to  declare  his 
righteousness,  that  he  might  be  just  and  the  justifier  of 
him  that  believeth?^^  To  look  for  any  more  ample 
redemption  is  only  flying  from  the  iron  weapon  and  rush- 
ing on  the  bow  of  steel.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that 
when  the  sacred  writers  treat  of  the  death  of  Christ,  and 
even  when  they  advert  to  it,  it  is  for  the  most  part  with 
the  cautious  and  important  restriction  which  has  been 
specified.  "  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteous- 
ness"— to  whom?  Not  to  all  mankind,  but  "  to  every 
one  that  helieveth.''^  It  were  as  much  at  war  with  justice 
to  pardon  men  in  impenitence  and  unbelief  through  the 
atonement,  as  it  were  to  pardon  the  penitent  without  any 
atonement  at  all.  To  "  every  one  that  believeth,"  the 
end  of  justice  is  as  effectually  secured  by  his  death,  as 
it  would  be  b}?^  the  punishment  of  the  believer  him- 
self. But  it  is  only  to  "  every  one  that  believeth  "  that 
it  is  thus  secured,  while  it  remains  for  others  to  fulfil  this 
high  end  by  suffering  the  penalty  in  their  own  persons, 
because  in  relation  to  them  it  has  not  been  secured  by  the 
death  of  Christ.     The  Cross  no  more  comes  in  the  place 


THE    ACTUAL    PURPOSE    OF    THE    CROSS.  87 

of  faith,  than  faith  comes  in  the  place  of  the  Cross ;  or, 
in  other  words,  the  Cross  does  not  come  in  place  of  pen- 
alty, where  faith  is  not  exercised.  It  has  its  limitations, 
and  they  are  wise.  A  comprehensiveness  heyond  this, 
and  such  as  precludes  the  necessity  of  accepting  it,  is 
incompatible  with  its  design  and  object,  and  would  sub- 
vert the  end  it  is  intended  to  promote. 

The  actual  purpose  of  the  Cross,  therefore,  is  one 
which  is  limited  to  a  part  of  mankind.  God  spared  not 
the  angels,  but  stooped  to  men ;  and  the  same  sove- 
reignty which  led  him  to  pass  by  angels,  has  led  him  to 
include  in  his  purpose  of  mercy  but  a  portion  of  the 
fallen  race  of  Adam.  This  is  a  purpose  altogether  irre- 
spective of  worth  or  worthiness  in  its  objects,  formed 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  carried  into 
effect  notwithstanding  their  ill-desert ;  a  purpose  of  mere 
grace,  itself  securing  the  faith  which  is  the  revealed  con- 
dition of  salvation,  in  compliance  with  the  ancient  grant 
to  his  Son  of  a  seed  to  serve  him  for  having  poured  out 
his  soul  unto  death  and  been  numbered  with  the  trans- 
gressors. 

Do  you  murmur  at  this  gracious  purpose  1  If  you  do 
so,  what  are  its  offensive  characteristics  ?  Are  you  dis- 
satisfied that  tlie  God  of  love  should  have  formed  any 
purpose  of  mercy  at  all  ?  Would  your  own  character 
and  condition  have  been  the  better  if  he  had  never  had 
these  thoughts  of  love  ?  Or  does  it  offend  you  that  you 
yourself  may  not  be  comprised  in  the  number  of  his 
chosen  people  ?  How  do  you  know  this  1  He  has  given 
you  being  in  a  world  of  hope  ;  he  has  blessed  you  with 
the  light  of  Christian  lands  ;  he  has  made  you  the  offer 
of  salvation ;  he  has  led  you  to  reflection  and  prayer  ;  he 
has  sent  his  Spirit  to  strive  with  you ;  and  are  these  the 
usual  indications  of  a  reprobate  mind  ?     Oh,  how  cruel. 


88     THE  ACTUAL  PURPOSE  OF  THE  CROSS. 

to  sever  yourself  from  his  love,  by  the  lurking  and 
thankless  suspicion  that  he  has  not  predestinated  you  to 
the  adoption  of  a  child  !  But  what  if  it  is  even  as  you 
are  willing  to  suspect  ?  Has  he  not  a  right  to  do  what  he 
will  W' ith  his  own  7  or  have  you  nothing  within  your  own 
bosom  that  can  induce  your  sympathy  with  the  joys  of 
those  w^ho  are  the  favored  objects  of  his  love  ?  "Is  thine 
eye  evil  because  he  is  good  ?"  Or  does  it  oflend  you 
that  his  grace  is  so  free,  and  that  personal  merit  has  no 
concern  in  the  great  transaction  by  which  the  sinner  is 
brought  home  to  God  ?  One  would  think  this  were  the 
very  salvation  you  need,  and  that  your  heart  w^ould  leap 
for  joy  at  the  thought  that  you,  who  have  nothing  to  give, 
may  have  it  without  money  and  without  price  ;  that  you, 
who  find  it  so  impossible  to  make  atonement  for  your 
own  offences,  may  take  refuge  in  the  atonement  made 
by  another ;  and  that  in  despair  of  the  effort  to  make 
yourself  better  before  you  obtain  mercy,  you  would  go  to 
Christ  just  as  you  are,  that  you  may  become  better.  Or 
does  it  offend  you  that  there  is  no  pardon  for  the  guilty, 
without  the  previous  satisfaction  to  justice  which  Christ 
has  made  on  the  Cross  ?  Is  it  so  that  you  would  fain  be 
saved  at  the  expense  of  justice,  and  that  this  wonderful 
decree  of  Heaven,  that  substituted  the  innocent  for  the 
guilty,  and  delivered  his  own  stainless  Son  to  be  spit 
upon,  and  buffeted,  and  put  to  death,  that  justice  might 
be  honored  and  you  might  live,  has  no  form  nor  come- 
liness in  your  eyes  ?  Oh,  will  )^ou  not  rather  open  your 
heart  to  the  glories  of  this  redemption,  and  then,  in  all 
humility  and  ardor,  ascribe  "  salvation  to  him  who 
sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  to  the  Lamb !" 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE     CROSS     ACCESSIBLE. 

It  is  one  of  the  plainest  truths  in  the  Bible,  that 
there  is  no  man,  be  he  who  he  may,  but  has  a  right  to 
repair  to  the  Cross  for  salvation.  Among  other  reasons, 
the  method  of  redemption  was  devised  and  accomplished 
on  purpose  to  secure  him  this  right,  this  divine  warrant, 
to  go  as  a  lost  sinner  to  Jesus  Christ  for  pardon  and  eter- 
nal life.  If  he  does  not  do  so,  he  sets  himself  in  opposi- 
tion to  this  gracious  design,  and  does  what  in  him  lies  to 
countervail  and  defeat  this  wondrous  work  of  God.  God 
offers  you  eternal  life  ;  and  who  shall  say  that  you  have 
not  a  right  to  accept  what  God  offers  ?  God  commands 
you  to  receive  his  Son  ;  and  have  you  not  a  right  to  do 
what  God  commands  you  1 

The  Scriptures  do  not  confine  the  influence  of  the  Cross 
to  the  salvation  of  a  peculiar  people.  This  is  its  great 
object,  its  saving  purpose,  but  this  is  not  all  it  accom- 
plishes. In  one  view,  and  that  no  unimportant  one,  the 
aspect  of  the  Redeemer's  mediation  is  universal.  It  relates 
to  the  moral  government  of  God  and  the  sinful  condition 
of  men.  It  is  the  fruit  of  that  divine  compassion,  that 
infinite  benevolence,  that  looks  with  equal  favor  upon  all 
mankind.  It  is  a  provision  for  the  ungodly.  It  is  the 
medium  of  universal  access  to  the  Father,  and  whosoever 
will  may  come  unto  God  by  Jesus  Christ.     While  he 


90  THE    CROSS    ACCESSIBLE. 

became  surety  to  the  Father  that  he  woiikl  rescue  a  chosen 
people  from  the  pollution  and  condemnation  of  sin,  and 
present  them  all  without  spot  before  the  presence  of  his 
glory  at  the  last  day,  he  does  by  this  very  act  introduce 
the  reign  of  mercy  over  our  entire  world.  Besides  being 
a  personal  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  all  who  believe  on 
him,  his  death  was  a  great  moral  expedient,  which  lays 
the  basis  for  all  those  equitable  dispensations  of  mercy  by 
which  the  threatened  stroke  of  justice  is  averted  and  the 
door  of  hope  is  opened  to  the  race.  It  introduces  a  new 
era  in  the  moral  government  of  God ;  so  that  it  is  no 
longer  a  government  of  pure  law  and  justice,  but  a 
government  of  mercy  lodged  ii:w  the  hands  of  the  Media- 
tor. The  object  of  this  gracious  government  is  to  arrest 
the  attention  of  men  as  sinners  ;  to  arrest  it  to  the  affect- 
ing fact  of  their  fallen  and  guilty  condition,  and  to  the 
divine  method  for  their  recovery ;  to  justify  God  in  these 
proclamations  of  pardon,  and  to  hold  out  the  strongest 
considerations  to  induce  men  everywhere  to  comply  with 
the  offers  and  claims  of  the  Gospel. 

Nothing  justifies  such  a  dispensation  of  mercy  but  the 
all-sufficient  propitiation  of  the  Son,  and  the  infinite 
merits  of  that  great  sacrifice.  The  sole  basis  on  which 
such  a  government  rests  is  the  obedience  unto  death  of 
the  great  Mediator,  furnishing,  as  it  does,  not  only  a  per- 
fect satisfaction  to  divine  justice  for  the  sins  of  all  those 
who  were  given  to  Christ  as  his  own  purchased  reward, 
but  a  public  declaration  of  the  righteousness  of  God  in 
the  forgiveness  of  sins  to  every  possible  extent,  if  men 
will  but  repent  and  believe  the  Gospel.  The  Cross  is 
now  accessible  to  all.  No  man  now  perishes  because 
there  is  not  forgiveness  with  God ;  no  man  now  perishes 
because  his  fate  was  involved  in  the  issue  of  the  first  apos- 
tacy ;  for  under  this  new  constitution  he  is  put  on  trial  for 


THE    CROSS    ACCESSIBLE.  gj^ 

himself,  and  must  decide  for  himself  whether   he  will 
or  will  not  have  the  gracious  Mediator  to  rule  over  him. 
This  view  of  the  Cross,  I  am  sensible,  differs  in  some 
respects  from  views  that  are  sometimes  met  with.     Is  not 
that  an  incautious  representation  of  the  work  of  the  Re- 
deemer, which  represents  it  as  a  sort  of  commercial  trans- 
action, in  which  such  an  amount  of  suffering  was  paid, 
and  no  more,  as  is  sufficient  to  redeem  a  specified  num- 
ber ?     I  am  free  to  say,  that  this  is  a  view  of  the  Saviour's 
sacrifice  which  I  cannot  find  in  the  word  of  God.     I 
cannot  see  that  it  is  anywhere  revealed  in  the  Scriptures, 
that  the  amount  of  the  Saviour's  sufferings  was  equal,  in 
value  and  measure,  to  what  his  own  people  deserved  to 
suffer,    and  that  beyond  this  their  merit  is  exhausted. 
Some  account  has  been  presented  in  a  preceding  chapter 
of  the  nature  of  that  great  and  effective  propitiation,  and 
it  bears  no  resemblance  to  any  such  arithmetic  as  this. 
It  is  a  matter  of  surprise,  that  men  should  ever  have 
pretended  to  fix  the  exact  amount  and  value  of  his  suf- 
ferings who  is  "  God  manifest  in  the  flesh."     If  any 
w^ould  know  how  much  the  death  of  Christ  is  worth,  I 
know  not  where,  I  know  not   when,  they  will  find  the 
problem  solved.     Not  until  measure  is  exhausted,  and 
numbers  fail.     The  intrinsic  value  of  the  Cross  is  infinite, 
and  can  never  be  told.     There  is  enough  and  to  spare. 
The  fountain  opened  for  sin  and  uncleanness  is  full — 
just  as  full  as  it  was  when  those  whom  John  saw  coming 
out  of  great  tribulation,  washed   their  robes   and   were 
made  white  in  the  blood  of  the  lamb — just  as  full  now,  as 
when  righteous  Abel  washed  in  it  and  was  made  clean. 
Nor  are  the  infinite  merit  and  sufficiency  of  the  Cross 
merely  incideyital  to  his  sacrifice,  but  a  generosity  on  the 
part  of  God  which  was  of  settled  and  deliberate  design. 
The  idea  that  Christ  is  a  special  grant  to  some  of  the 


92  THE    CROSS    ACCESSIBLE. 

human  family,  which,  from  its  infinite  vahie,  is  incident- 
ally sufficient  for  the  whole,  is  a  refinement  in  theology, 
the  proof  of  which  is  not  made  out  from  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. The  salvation  of  the  Cross  does  not  happen  to  be 
sufficient  for  all,  because  a  less  atonement  would  not  be 
sufficient  for  a  part ;  its  unmeasured  amplitude  and  full- 
ness were  the  result  of  deliberate  counsel,  and  the 
accomplishment  of  a  purpose  formed  in  the  remote 
recesses  of  a  past  eternity.  Its  infinite  sufficiency  does 
not  render  it  a  provision  for  the  fallen  angels,  because  it 
is  a  sufficiency  never  designed  for  them.  The  inhabit- 
ants of  our  world  sustain  a  different  relation  to  the  death 
of  Christ  from  that  which  is  sustained  by  devils.  They 
sustain  a  diffisrent  relation  to  the  law  of  God,  in  conse- 
quence of  his  death,  from  that  which  devils  sustain. 
The  devils  are  under  the  law  as  a  covenant  of  works — a 
broken  covenant — and  are  therefore  under  its  executed 
penalty  :  men  are  under  the  law  "in  the  hands  of  the 
Mediator,"  and  therefore  have  the  warrant  to  repent  and 
believe  the  Gospel.  Those  of  our  lost  race  who  are  now 
living  on  the  earth,  and  who  for  their  unbelief  will  finally 
perish,  sustain  a  different  relation  to  the  law  from  that 
which  they  would  have  sustained,  had  no  propitiation 
ever  been  luade.  They  have  a  day  of  grace,  and  though 
prisoners  of  law  and  justice,  are  ''prisoners  of  hope," 
and  invited  to  flee  to  the  stronghold.  But  for  the  Cross, 
they  would  have  been  what  fallen  angels  now  are. 
They  have  the  offer  of  mercy,  which  fallen  angels  have 
not.  They  have  the  privilege  of  seeking  the  Lord  when 
he  may  be  found,  which  fallen  angels  have  not. 
They  may  lift  their  eyes  to  the  mercy-seat,  and 
plead  the  blood  of  this  great  propitiation,  which  fallen 
angels  may  not,  dare  not  do.  They  enjoy  these  unutter- 
ably precious  privileges  through  the  death  of  Christ,  and 


THE    CROSS    ACCESSIBLE.  93 

until  the  light  of  hope  and  mercy  is  extinguished  in  the 
grave.  And  when  this  world  is  passed  away,  and  they 
lift  up  their  eyes  in  hell,  one  of  their  bitterest  reflections 
will  be,  that  while  the  chief  of  sinners  are  saved  by 
returning  to  God  through  Jesus  Christ,  they  might  have 
been  saved  in  the  same  way,  if  they  had  not  rejected  the 
great  salvation  and  chosen  the  paths  to  death.  Such  is  the 
influence  of  the  Cross  upon  the  moral  government  of 
God,  that  he  can  be  "just  and  the  justifier  of  every  one 
that  believeth  in  Jesus."  The  entire  race  are,  in  this 
respect,  placed  by  the  death  of  Christ  upon  the  same 
footing.  The  same  atonement  which  renders  it  consist- 
ent with  the  divine  justice  to  pardon  one  returning  sinner, 
renders  it  equally  just  to  pardon  any  and  every  returning 
sinner.  The  object  of  this  propitiation  is  to  save  the  jus- 
tice of  God  harmless  in  pardoning  "  every  one  that 
believeth."  It  has  so  changed  the  relations  of  the  entire 
race  to  the  law  of  God,  that  it  is  not  the  law  which  now 
stands  in  the  way  of  their  salvation,  but  their  own  impeni- 
tence and  unbelief.  The  legal  relations  of  those  who 
will  finally  perish,  and  the  legal  relations  of  those  who 
now  disbelieve  the  Gospel,  and  who  afterwards  believe  it 
and  are  saved,  are  now  precisely  the  same.  They  are  all 
under  its  curse,  "  condemned  already,  because  they 
believe  not  in  the  name  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of 
God."  The  latter  class  are  pardoned  as  soon  as  they 
return  to  their  allegiance  "by  faith  in  his  blood;"  and 
the  former  may  be  pardoned  by  falling  in  with  the  same 
gracious  and  condescending  terms  of  salvation.  The 
Cross  respects  men  as  sinners  ;  it  addresses  them  as  sin- 
ners. In  its  boundless  all-sufiiciency,  it  has  no  concern 
with  them  in  a  numerical  view ;  but  regards  them  as 
those  whose  relations  to  the  law  of  God  are  so  changed 
by  this  effective  propitiation,  that  all  external  obstacles  to 


94  THE    CROSS    ACCESSIBLE. 

their  salvation  are  graciously  removed.  No  matter  who 
he  is,  or  where  he  dwells  ;  no  matter  what  his  ignorance, 
or  how  many  or  how  aggravated  his  sins ;  if  he  belongs 
to  the  lost  family  of  man,  the  Cross  is  the  remedy  fitted 
to  reach  him  in  all  his  woes.  There  is  no  locality,  or 
condition,  and  no  variety  of  the  human  species,  to  which 
the  narrative  of  the  Cross,  and  its  great  and  glorious 
truths,  and  its  ineffable  love  and  mercy,  are  not  alike 
applicable.  They  furnish  the  great  remedy  which  con- 
sults the  guilt  and  misery  of  all  classes  of  society,  all 
periods  of  time,  all  climes,  all  nations,  all  languages,  all 
men.  They  are  equally  fitted  to  the  lost  condition  of  one 
man,  as  another.  They  are  sufficient  for  the  race,  and, 
so  far  as  their  unembarrassed  sufficiency  goes,  were  de- 
signed for  the  race.  There  is  no  man  whose  forgiveness 
the  Cross  of  Christ  does  not  render  just  and  righteous,  on 
his  repenting  and  believing  the  Gospel.  In  this  view,  the 
Cross  is  a  deliberate,  designed  and  honest  provision  for  all 
men ;  a  privilege  of  which  many  may  be  ignorant,  and 
many  fail  to  improve,  but  one  which,  wherever  the  Gospel 
is  known,  is  as  truly  in  the  hands  of  those  who  misimprove 
it  and  perish,  as  of  those  who  improve  it  and  are  saved. 
The  proof  of  these  remarks  from  the  Scriptures  is 
abundant,  and  familiar  to  every  reader  of  the  Bible. 
"  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every 
creature."  '■^Whosoever  will  let  him  take  of  the  waters 
of  life  freely."  "  Ho!  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye 
to  the  waters."  These,  and  a  multitude  of  passages  of 
similar  import,  are  expressly  addressed  to  all  men,  and 
from  design.  If  it  be  said,  that  in  commissioned  mes- 
sages like  these,  God  requires  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel 
to  make  this  indiscriminate  offer  of  salvation,  because 
they  do  not  know  who  will  accept  them,  and  because  it 
is  not  their  province  to  distinguish  between  those  who 


THE    CROSS    ACCESSIBLE.  gg 

are  and  those  who  are  not  his  chosen  people  ;  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  the  offer  is  God's  own  offer,  and 
that  his  ministers  make  it  only  in  his  name.     He  en- 
dorses it,  and  speaks  through  them.     He  knows  who  his 
chosen  people  are  5  and  the  gracious  overture  is  made  by 
his   authority  and  on  his  behalf.     "  Warn  them  from 
me."     «'  Speak  to  them  my  words.^'  "  As  though  God 
did  beseech  you  by  us,  we  pray  you,  in  Christ^ s  stead,  be 
ye  reconciled  to  God."     We  wish  to  vindicate  the  un- 
feigned sincerity  of  the  Gospel  offer,  and  we  do  not  per- 
ceive how  it  can  be  vindicated,  unless   God  is  able  and 
willing  to  do  what  he  offers  to  do ;  unless  he  is  willing 
his  offer   should    be  accepted  ;  and  unless  the  offer  be 
made  on  reasonable  terms.     He   offers   to  all  men  sal- 
vation, through  faith  in  the  blood  of  his  Son.     This  he 
is  able  and  has  a  right  to  do,  because  there  is  infinite 
sufficiency  in  the  death  of  Christ.     This  he  is  willing  to 
do,  or  he  would  not  offer  it,  nor  so  solemnly  have  sworn, 
"  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord  God,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the 
death  of  the  wicked,  but  that  he  turn   and  live."     And 
the  terms  on  which  the  offer  is  made  are  as  reasonable 
and  as  low  as  they  can  be ;  for  nothing  excludes  any 
man  from  the  richest  blessings  of  the  Gospel,  but  fiisown 
cherished  rejection  of  them  to  the  last.    I  cannot  see  that 
it  is  necessary  to  the  sincerity  of  the  offer,  that  God  should 
make  men  themselves  willing  to  accept  it.     There  may 
be,  there  are,  good  reasons  for  his  not  doing  this,  in  re- 
lation to  all  those  who  are  finally  lost,  which  do  not  at 
all  conflict  with  the  sincerity  of  the  offer.     The  offer  he 
makes  is  in  every  view  expressive  of  his  own  mind  and 
heart,  of  the  infinite  merit  of  his  Son,  and  of  the  mu- 
nificence of  his  condescending  grace.     Upon  this  same 
ground,  the  obligation  rests  on  all  who  come  within  the 
range  of  these  published  invitations  to  accept  them.    The 


96  THE    CROSS      ACCESSIBLE. 

obligation  is  of  the  highest  authority,  and  right  in  itself. 
It  is  the  "  commandment  of  the  Everlasting  God,"  to  all 
men,  everywhere.  It  is  an  obligation,  the  neglect  of 
which  is  not  only  rebuked  and  punished,  but  the  sin  of 
sins,  and  one  which,  while  it  cuts  off  the  incorrigible 
from  hope,  seals  him  up  to  that  "  sorer  punishment"  of 
which  those  are  thought  worthy  who  tread  under  their 
feet  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  God.  The  foundation  which 
is  laid  in  Zionis,  therefore,  strong  and  broad  enough  to  sus- 
tain the  confidence  which  is  required  with  so  much  author- 
ity, and  enforced  with  such  solemn  and  affecting  sanctions. 

There  are  not  a  few  passages  of  Scripture  which  seem 
to  me  to  give  strong  proof  of  this  conclusion.  "  God  so 
loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son ;" — 
he  is  the  "  propitiation  for  our  sms,  and  not  for  ours  only, 
but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world ;^^—'^  Who  gave  himself 
a  ransom/or  all  to  be  testified  in  due  time  ;" — "  The  Lamb 
of  God  who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  ;" — "  Christ 
the  Saviour  of  the  world ;^'—'^  The  bread  of  God  is  he  that 
giveth  life  unto  the  world  ;"— "  My  flesh  which  I  gave  for 
the  life  of  the  world  ;"— "  If  one  died  for  all,  then  were 
all  dead  ;"_"  That  he,  by  the  grace  of  God,  should  taste 
death  for  every  man.^^  Passages  like  these  must  teach 
either  that  it  was  the  design  of  God,  by  the  death  of  his 
Son,  to  save  all  men,  which  none  but  the  rashest  Universal- 
ist  believes ;  or  that  his  Son  was  set  forth  to  be  such  a 
propitiation  as  is  amply  sufficient  for  the  salvation  of  all 
mankind,  if  all  should  repent  and  believe  the  Gospel. 

If  the  question  be  asked,  what  good  ends  the  death  of 
Christ  secures  by  this  redundancy  of  merit,  since  it  is  not 
designed  to  secure  the  salvation  of  the  race  ;  the  inquiry 
is  substantially  answered  by  the  general  scope  and  design 
of  the  preceding  remarks.  Is  it  nothing  that  it  unfolds 
the  love  of  God  to  a  lost  world  ;  that  it  throws  upon  men 


THE    CROSS    ACCESSIBLE.  q« 

themselves  the  responsibility  of  plunging  into  the  pit  from 
this  world  of  mercy,  and  in  defiance  of  all  the  Cross  has 
done;  that  it  leaves  the  despisers   of  his  grace  withom 
excuse  and  speechless ;  and  that  for  the  honor  of  the  just 
God  and  Saviour,  it  plants  in  their  bosoms  the  soul-wither- 
ing conviction,  that  because  they  would  not  come  unto 
Christ  that  they  might  have  life,  they  are  the  authors  of 
their  own  destruction?     Who  shall   tell   the  influence 
which  the  scenes  of  Calvary  have  exerted,  and  will  yet 
exert,  even  where  they  fail  to  be  the  "wisdom  of  God 
and  the  power  of  God  to  salvation  ?"     Is  there   not  a 
vastly  less  amount  of  wickedness  in  this  lower  world,  even 
among  those  who  will    finally  perish,  from  the  very  fact 
that  It  is  a  world  of  hope  and  mercy,  and  under  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  great  Mediatorial  Prince  ?     Is  there  no 
development  of  character,  that  is   of  importance  to  the 
interests  of  his  kingdom,  which  would  otherwise  never 
have  been  made  ?     I  do  not  know  where  to  limit  the 
effects  of  this  mighty  movement  in  the  divine  empire. 
The  appeal  is  one  to  human  ignorance ;   but  it  is  not  a 
solitary  one,  in  the  government  of  God.     Why  does  the 
light   shine    upon    the  eyes  of  the  blind,  or  melodious 
sounds  play  around  the  ears  of  the  deaf?     There  is  no 
more  reason  to  believe  that  the  privilege  of  a  preached 
Gospel,  of  an  instructive  and  inviting  sanctuary,  of  a 
Christian   education,    of   private    or    social   prayer,    of 
advancement  in  any  department  of  human  science,  or 
any  other  privilege,  spiritual  or  temporal,  were  in  vain 
given  to  those  who  never  improve  them,  than  that  Christ 
died  m  vain  in  respect  to  those  who  reject  his  salvation. 
All  these  things  answer  important  ends  even  where  they 
are  most  perverted  and  abused.     For  the  same  reasons 
that  "  a  price  is  put  into  the  hands  of  a  fool  to  get  wis- 
dom when  he  hath  no  heart  to  it,"  so  the  provisions  of 
5 


98  THE    CROSS    ACCESSIBLE. 

the  Cross  possess  a  sufficiency,  an  amplitude  as  large  as 
the  sins  and  woes  of  men,  though  not  accepted  hy  all. 

The  question,  whether  the  Cross  bears  a  relation  to 
the  whole,  or  a  part  of  mankind,  is  and  for  centuries  has 
been  a  vexed  question.  If  it  bears  relation  only  to  a 
part,  what  is  that  relation  ?  If  it  bears  any  relation  to  the 
whole,  what  is  that  relation?  In  one  view,  its  re- 
demption is  a  definite  and  particular  redemption ;  because 
it  was  effected  for  the  purpose  of  saving  only  a  part  of 
mankind.  There  is  another  view  in  which  it  is  unlimit- 
ed and  universal ;  because  it  is  in  its  own  nature  suf- 
ficient for  all,  and  with  the  same  honesty  and  fitness, 
and  on  tlie  same  terms,  proposed  to  the  acceptance  of 
all.  The  views  we  have  expressed  are  equally  opposed, 
on  the  one  hand,  to  those  latitudinarian  notions,  which 
deny  the  penal  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  teach  that  the 
great  design  of  his  death  is  simply  declaratory,  and  a 
measure  of  expediency  rather  than  one  demanded  by 
justice  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  to  those  which  assign  to 
his  sufferings  a  value  measured  by  the  ill-desert  of  a  part 
of  mankind.  Where  these  errors  are  renounced,  and 
there  is  a  concurrence  of  views  in  regard  to  the  nature 
and  all-sufficiency  of  the  Redeemer's  sacrifice,  the  dis- 
pute in  regard  to  its  extent  is  logomachy — a  dispute 
about  words.  In  a  discourse  on  "  The  death  of  Christ 
a. proper  atonement  for  sin,"  the  late  Dr.  Witherspoon 
remarks  :  "  In  this,  as  in  most  other  debates,  matters 
have  been  carried  a  far  greater  length  than  the  interest 
of  truth  requires ;  and  as  is  also  usual,  they  have  arisen 
from  an  improper  and  unskillful  mixture  of  what  be- 
longs to  the  secret  counsels  of  the  Most  High  with  his 
revealed  will,  which  is  the  invariable  rule  of  our  duty." 
The  strongest  Calvinists,  when  they  speak  of  the  death 
of  Christ  as  a  measure  of  God's  moral  government,  and 


THE    CROSS    ACCESSIBLE.  99 

bearing  alike  upon  the  condition,  conscience,  privileges, 
and  hopes  of  men,  give  it  the  greatest  amplitude  and  full- 
ness. In  the  language  of  the  late  Dr.  M.  Mason,  "  The 
true  and  only  warrant  of  faith  is  the  free  offer  of  Clirist 
to  us  in  the  Gospel.  God  hath  made  a  grant  of  his  Son 
Jesus  Christ,  as  an  all-sufficient  Saviour,  to  a  lost  and 
perishing  world.  He  hath  not  merely  revealed  a  general 
knowledge  of  him,but  has  directly  and  solemnly  given  him 
to  sinners  as  such,  that  they  might  be  saved.  This  gift  is 
absolutely  free — indiscriminately  to  all  the  hearers  of  the 
Gospel,  and  to  every  one  of  them  in  particular."*  In  an 
instructive  treatise  entitled,  "The  death  of  death  in  the 
death  of  Christ,"  Dr.  Owen  remarks:  "Sufficient  was  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ  for  the  redemption  of  the  whole  v/orld, 
and  for  the  expiation  of  all  the  sins  of  all  and  every  man 
in  the  world.  That  it  should  be  applied,  made  a  price  for 
them,  and  become  beneficial  to  them  according  to  the 
worth  that  is  in  it,  is  external  to  it,  and  doth  not  arise 
from  it,  but  merely  depends  on  the  intention  and  will  of 
God."  Just  as,  in  one  view,  a  feast  is  prepared  for  all 
the  invited  guests,  and  in  another,  only  for  those  who 
partake  of  it ;  so,  in  one  view,  is  the  Gospel  feast  fur- 
nished for  all,  and  in  another  only  for  those  who  hunger 
and  thirst  after  righteousness,  and  are  partakers  of  its 
bounty.  Just  as  the  Bible,  in  one  view,  is  revealed  for 
all  men,  and  in  another  view  is  revealed  only  for  those 
who  read,  and  understand,  and  profit  by  it ;  so  is  this  more 
condensed  exhibition  of  its  truth  and  grace,  the  Cross  of 
Christ,  in  one  view  made  over  to  all,  and  in  another  only 
to  a  part. 

The  Cross,  therefore,  presents  you  a  great,  a  free  sal- 


*  See  an  "  Act  of  the  Synod  of  the  Associate  Reformed    Church   in 
North  America,  concerning  Faith  and  Justification."— .^/ason's   Works. 


JOO  THE    CROSS    ACCESSIBLE. 

vation.  It  is  your  birth-right,  as  born  under  the  benign 
promise,  that  the  seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise  the 
head  of  the  serpent.  Were  assembled  thousands  before 
me  as  they  stood  before  Peter  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  I 
would  isolate  each  individual  among  them  from  the  rest, 
and  address  him  in  the  language  of  that  apostle,  "  Re- 
pent and  be  baptized  every  one  of  you  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ,  for  the  remission  of  sins."  Were  the  eight 
hundred  millions  who  now  compose  the  population  of 
this  globe,  assembled  on  some  vast  plain,  I  should  bo 
warranted,  by  the  nature  and  sufficiency  of  this  great  sal- 
vation, to  address  each  one  by  himself  alone,  and,  as 
though  he  were  the  only  solitary  transgressor  who  needed 
salvation  through  the  blood  of  the  Cross,  to  assure  him  in 
God's  name  that  he  might  have  it  for  the  taking.  I  w^ould 
tell  him  that  nothing  is  wanting  to  make  it  his,  but  his 
accepting  it.  This  is  the  language  of  the  Cross  to  every 
living  man.  God  would  not  seal  up  his  testimony  to 
this  lost  world  without  including  in  it  that  comprehensive 
invitation,  "  And  the  spirit  and  the  bride  say,  come. 
And  let  him  that  heareth  say,  come.  And  let  him  that 
is  athirst  come.  And  whosoever  will,  let  him  take  of 
the  water  of  life  freely."  My  brother  of  the  lost  family 
of  man,  it  is  on  this  mountain  of  Zion  that  \he  reader  and 
writer  are  invited  to  a  "  feast  of  fat  things,  of  wines  on 
the  lees,  of  fat  things  full  of  marrow,  of  wines  on  the  lees 
well  refined."  The  voice  of  him  who  was  "  set  forth  to 
be  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  his  blood,"  does  but 
speak  the  language  of  his  own  warm  heart,  when  he 
gives  you  the  assurance,  that  "  him  that  cometh  he  will 
in  no  wise  cast  out."  Make  ever  so  large  demands  upon 
the  Cross,  and  you  do  not  exhaust  its  efficacy.  You  have 
no  need  of  any  other  refuge  ;  no,  not  even  of  any  aux- 
iliary.    It  is  the  exclusive  right  of  that  great  sufferer  to 


THE    CROSS    ACCESSIBLE.  2OI 

redeem.  He  insists  upon  this  great  and  g-lorious  mo- 
nopoly. Casting-  his  eyes  upon  you,  as  you  turn  over  these 
pages,  he  says,  "  Look  unto  me  and  be  ye  saved,  all  ye 
ends  of  the  earth  ;  for  I  am  God  and  there  is  none  else." 
It  is  an  affecting  reality  that  you  still  occupy  a  place 
in  this  Avorld  of  hope.  You  dwell  on  the  earth  where 
the  holy  child  Jesus  was  born;  where  he  wept,  and  bled, 
and  died.  There  are  those  to  whom  this  same  announce- 
ment might  have  been  made  ;  but  it  is  too  late  to  make 
it  to  them  in  that  world  of  darkness  and  despair.  Could 
we  tell  them  of  these  glad  tidings  now — could  some 
herald  of  heavenly  mercy  be  commissioned  to  enter 
that  dark  abode  whence  the  light  of  hope  has  ever  been 
debarred,  with  what  wonder  would  its  wretched  inhabit- 
ants, from  those  seats  of  woe,  look  at  the  unwonted  mes- 
senger! They  could  scarcely  conceive  the  purpose  of 
his  coming ;  and  when,  amid  the  accents  of  horror  which 
are  everywhere  uttered,  this  messenger  of  heaven  should 
sound  forth  through  the  interminable  dungeon  a  note  of 
mercy  ;  human  language  fails  to  describe  the  unknown, 
the  almost  infinite  emotion  that  would  leap  into  being  at 
the  sound.  Oh,  could  it  be  told  in  that  gloomy,  fright- 
ful world,  that  there  is  a  wondrous  method  of  restoring 
mercy,  their  wild  revulsion  of  joy  words  would  fail  to 
express,  even  if  it  could  be  conceived.  But  there  are 
no  such  glad  tidings  for  those  deep  abodes  of  darkness 
and  death.  The  voice  of  mercy  never  has  broken  that 
melancholy  monotony  of  ages,  and  never  will  break  it. 
But  the  hope  that  is  denied  to  them  is  imparted  to  fallen 
man.  The  mercy  they  may  not  look  for,  and  the  life 
which  they  forever  despair  of  regaining,  are  oflfered  and 
brought  nigh  to  you.  To  you,  is  "  the  word  of  this  sal- 
vation sent;"  to  you,  and  not  to  devils ;  to  you,  and  not 
to  the  spirits  of  lost  men  ;  to  you,  and  not  to  the  dead  ; 


JQ2  THE    CROSS    ACCESSIBLE. 

to  you,  and  not  to  the  heathen;  though  you  are  but 
"  man  that  is  a  worm,  and  the  son  of  man  which  is  as  a 
worm;  though  your  sin  abounds  and  your  iniquities  are 
as  scarlet  and  crimson ;  and  though  you  have  so  often 
rejected  it.  And  what  reception  will  you  now  give  to 
it?  Oh,  thou  polluted  and  condemned !  come  and  wash 
in  this  fountain  of  ablution  and  grace ;  come  and  find 
pardon  at  this  blood-stained  mercy-seat.  Oh,  thou  wan- 
derer and  outcast !  while  the  storm  lowers,  and  before  it 
breaks  in  its  fury,  hearken  to  him  who  would  cover  you 
from  its  indignation,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  brood 
under  her  wings.  The  Cross  is  the  emblem  of  tranquillity 
and  peace.  Help  is  far,  and  death  is  nigh,  if  you  turn 
away  from  the  Cross.  As  God  has  made  you  to  differ 
from  the  devils  and  the  damned,  from  the  heathen  and 
from  the  spirits  of  lost  men,  so  does  he  hold  you  account- 
able for  his  proffered  grace.  "The  servant  that  knew  his 
Lord's  will  and  did  it  not,  shall  be  beaten  with  many 
stripes."  Some  future  period  in  your  undone  eternity 
may  remind  you  of  the  Cross  of  Christ.  Some  deeper 
cavern  in  the  world  of  despair  may  witness  the  surpass- 
ing intensity  of  your  grief,  beyond  the  sorrows  of  many  a 
less  guilty  convict,  who  never  trampled  upon  a  Saviour's 
blood. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED   JUSTIFICATION. 

Pardon  throug-li  the  blood  of  the  Cross  is  preliminary 
to  advancement  through  its  righteousness.  The  criminal 
who  is  pardoned  by  the  State,  is  not  on  that  account 
received  into  favor  :  rather  is  he  still  regarded  as  a  dis- 
graced and  degraded  man ;  and  it  requires  singularly 
meritorious  services  to  reinstate  him  at  court.  So  pardon 
through  the  Cross  does  not  so  restore  the  sinner  to  the 
favor  of  God  as  to  give  him  a  title  to  all  the  immunities 
of  the  divine  kingdom.  It  is  indeed  a  great  matter  that 
the  death  of  Christ  has  procured  his  pardon  ;  but  this  is 
not  all  that  he  needs.  By  this,  he  is  simply  acquitted 
from  the  penalty  of  the  law ;  he  escapes  from  punish- 
ment ;  he  is  merely  kept  out  of  hell,  and  has  "  attained 
the  mid-way  position  of  God's  letting  him  alone."  He 
asks  for  something  higher  ;  he  seeks  the  privileges  of  a 
loyal  and  obedient  subject ;  he  would  be  entitled  to  the 
rewards  of  righteousness  ;  he  would  stand  restored,  re- 
instated in  the  favor  of  his  heavenly  Prince,  and  not 
merely  a  fair  candidate  for  gracious  advancement,  but 
the  titled  possessor  of  courtly,  of  heavenly  honors.  This 
title  the  Cross  of  Christ  gives  him.  To  every  believer,  it 
is  a  completed  justification.  Thus  it  is  that  his  entire  sal- 
vation is  not  the  work  of  man,  but  from  beginning  to  end 
the  work  of  Christ,  and  will  be  to  the  glory  of  Him  who 
"  is  all  in  all."  And  this  is  one  of  the  attractions  of  the 
Cross. 


j()4         THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION. 

The  prominent  point  of  divergency  of  all  false  religions 
from  the  true,  will  be  found  in  ignorance,  denial,  or 
perversion  of  this  great  truth.  Among  the  radical  errors 
of  the  Church  of  Rome,  is  the  doctrine  of  human  merit 
and  of  works  of  supererogation.  The  belief  of  that 
antichristian  system  is,  that  all  that  Jesus  Christ  has  done 
for  men  is  to  enable  them  to  merit  the  favor  of  God  for 
themselves  ;  that  his  desert  makes  them  deserving  ;  and 
that  his  merit  consists  in  giving  merit  to  their  own  obe- 
dience. It  teaches  that  there  are  good  works  over  and 
above  those  which  God  requires,  and  which  constitute 
a  fund  of  merit  to  be  distributed  as  an  offset  to  all  defal- 
cations, and  are  to  be  regarded  as  a  claim  for  favor 
otherwise  forfeited.  When,  after  many  painful  strug- 
gles, a  few  pious  and  devoted  men,  who  had  been  educated 
in  the  bosom  of  that  church,  had  become  so  convinced  of 
her  apostacy  as  to  resolve  on  a  separation  from  her  com- 
munion, and  a  systematic  organization  of  a  Reformed 
Church,  the  great  means  on  which,  under  God,  they 
relied,  next  to  the  circulation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
was  the  great  doctrine  of  the  sinner's  acceptance  through 
the  righteousness  of  Jesus  Christ.  Of  all  the  truths  which 
produced  such  mighty  results  in  the  state  of  the  world 
at  that  period  of  conflict,  and  which  was  honored  of  its 
divine  Author  in  effecting  the  Reformation,  none  stood 
forth  more  prominent  than  this.  ''  This  article  reigns  in 
my  heart,"  said  Luther,  "and  with  this  the  church 
stands  or  falls." 

Justification  is  the  reverse  of  that  state  of  condemna- 
tion to  which  man  as  a  sinner  is  adjudged  by  the  law  of 
God.  It  is  not  the  creature's  act,  but  purely  the  act  of 
God.  It  is  not  the  moral  character  of  the  creature  that 
is  effected  by  it,  but  his  legal  relations.  It  is  not  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  his  heart,  nor  his  own  per- 


THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION.         105 

sonal  exercise  of  a  gracious  disposition  ;  but  the  sentence 
of  God,  as  Lawgiver,  pronouncing  him  just  and  accepting 
him  as  a  righteous  man.  It  is  not  an  acquittal  of  the 
charge  of  personal  wickedness ;  for  in  the  very  act  of 
justification,  there  is  the  strongest  implication  of  that 
charge.  Nor  is  it  in  any  form,  or  degree,  a  vindication 
of  the  sinner's  conduct,  nor  any  excuse  or  palliation  of 
it ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  direct  condemnation  of  it, 
and  in  the  most  emphatic  terms.  "  It  is  God  that  justi- 
fieth."  It  is  the  act  of  God,  originating  in  his  free, 
unmerited  grace,  whereby  he  judges  the  disobedient  to 
the  rewards  of  the  obedient — the  unjust  to  the  rewards 
of  the  just ;  securing  to  them  all  the  positive  blessings 
which  his  law  secures  to  an  unoffending  and  perfectly 
obedient  subject.  Be  they  adoption  into  the  divine  family 
and  all  the  privileges  of  the  sons  of  God — be  they  the 
divine  guardianship  and  favor  in  time  of  trouble,  and 
the  divine  presence  as  they  go  down  to  the  dark  valley — 
be  they  the  resurrection  and  the  life  when  they  dwell  in 
the  dust,  or  the  cheering  sentence  of  approbation  when 
they  stand  at  the  bar  of  judgment — be  they  what  they 
may,  which  the  law  secures  to  the  sinless  and  obedient, 
the  act  of  justification  secures  to  the  believer. 

Thus  to  "justify  the  wn^od/3/"  is  a  most  important 
measure  in  the  divine  government,  and  may  not  be  per- 
formed slightly,  nor  without  good  and  suflicient  reasons. 
What  that  is  which  renders  it  right  and  just  for  God  to 
do  this,  and  which  constitutes  the  foundation,  the  ground, 
or  the  meritorious  cause  of  justification,  is  very  distinctly 
revealed  in  the  sacred  writings.  Our  first  parents  were, 
in  the  more  rigid  acceptation  of  the  phrase,  in  a  state 
of  probation,  and  put  upon  their  good  behaviour.  On 
condition  of  maintaining  their  integrity  during  this  period 
of  trial,  they  were  to  be  confirmed  in  holiness  and 
5* 


106        THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION. 

happiness,  and  to  become  the  possessors  of  eternal  Hfe. 
It  is  an  unvarying  principle  of  the  divine  government, 
that  eternal  life  is  bestowed  in  approbation  of  a  perfect 
righteousness.  "  The  man  that  doeth  these  things  shall 
live  in  them.^'  Such  a  righteousness  is  good,  and  will 
stand  in  the  day  of  reckoning.  It  is  spotless  and  pure  ;  it 
is  the  righteousness  of  the  unfallen,  and  whoever  possess- 
es it,  shall  find  it  a  complete  and  completed  justification. 
If  any  are  to  be  found  among  our  race  who  have  per- 
fectly obeyed  the  law  of  God,  they  have  a  legal  right 
to  acquittal  from  punishment,  and  to  the  reward  of  a 
perfect  obedience.  Now,  this  great  principle  of  the 
divine  government  is  abundantly  magnified  by  the  Cross 
of  Christ ;  and  in  every  instance  of  salvation,  eternal  life 
is  still  bestowed  in  approbation  of  a  perfect  righteous- 
ness. Such  a  righteousness  deserves,  and  has  a  claim  of 
merit  on  such  a  reward  ;  nor  is  the  reward  ever  bestowed 
except  for  such  a  righteousness.  The  idea  of  merit,  as 
attaching  itself  to  a  perfect  obedience,  has,  I  am  sensible, 
been  repudiated  by  some  writers  ;  but  if  the  word  itself 
be  not  destitute  of  meaning,  and  if  there  be  such  a  thing 
as  merit  in  the  moral  world,  it  is  found  in  a  perfect 
obedience  to  the  holy  law  of  God.  But  such  a  righteous- 
ness belongs  not  to  any  of  the  apostate  descendants  of 
Adam.  "  All  have  sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory 
of  God."  "  By  the  deeds  of  law  shall  no  flesh  be  justi- 
fied." If  man,  who  is  as  "  an  unclean  thing,"  and  all 
"his  righteousness  as  filthy  rags,"  is  ever  just  with  God, 
it  must  be  by  the  righteousness  of  another.  The  sinner 
has  no  good  works,  no  obedience  which  can,  either  in 
whole  or  in  part,  come  in  the  place  of  a  spotless  right- 
eousness, and  constitute  the  ground  of  his  acceptance 
with  God.  To  all  the  intents  and  purposes  of  his  justi- 
fication, once  a  sinner  he  is  always  a  sinner.    His  oppor- 


THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION.  JQ? 

tunity  for  securing-  a  title  to  eternal  life  by  the  deeds  of 
law  was  lost  by  his  first  offence,  and  can  never  be  re- 
g-ained.  Yet  is  there  a  way,  by  which,  according  to  the 
gracious  method  of  reckoning  revealed  in  the  Gospel, 
God  is  just  and  the  justifier  of  him  that  belie veth  in 
Jesus  ;  and  sinner  though  he  is,  through  "  the  free  gift," 
which  "  is  of  many  offences  unto  justification,"  he  is  en- 
titled to  life  eternal,  because,  by  the  divine  appointment, 
there  is  a  righteousness  which  comes  in  place  of  his  own, 
and  in  the  working  out  of  which  he  himself  has  no 
share. 

Whose  is  this  righteousness,  and  whence  does  it  pro- 
ceed 1  In  answering  this  question,  we  must  have  recourse 
to  a  plain,  yet  important  principle  in  the  divine  govern- 
ment. No  finite  being  is  capable  of  rendering  an  obedi- 
ence to  the  law  of  God  which  is  capable,  upon  legal 
principles,  of  exerting  a  meritorious  influence  on  the 
behalf  of  others,  because  his  entire  and  unceasing  service 
is  due  to  God  on  his  own  account.  The  holiest  finite 
being  in  the  universe  has  not  one  act  of  obedience  to  spare 
beyond  that  full  measure  of  holiness  which  is  necessary 
to  make  good  his  own  title  to  eternal  life.  An  infinite 
being  only — one  who,  by  his  nature,  is  placed  above  all 
necessary  or  original  obligation,  and  who,  from  his  in- 
finite perfection  and  essential  supremacy,  is  able  to  invest 
his  obedience  with  a  merit  that  is  infinite — can  provide  a 
righteousness  which  may  be  reckoned  to  the  account  of 
the  unrighteous.  This  was  the  great  expedient  to  which 
the  wisdom  and  love  of  God  had  recourse  as  the  basis  of 
his  glorious  Gospel,  and  as  the  means  whereby  he  could 
show  himself  "  a  just  God  and  a  Saviour."  There  was 
such  a  righteousness  which  he  could  acknowledge — a 
righteousness  which  he  could  look  upon  with  compla- 
cency— an  obedience  with  which  he  is  well  pleased.     It 


108         THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION. 

is  a  righteousness  that  stands  "  separate  and  aloof"  from 
all  created  rig-hteousness,  and  one  that  not  only  meets  the 
demands  of  the  law,  but  so  magnifies  it  and  makes  it 
honorable  that  its  worth  can  never  be  diminished,  nor  its 
resources  exhausted.  It  is  difficult  to  misinterpret  the  plain 
language  of  the  New  Testament  on  this  important  topic. 
''^As  by  the  offence  of  One,  judgment  came  upon  all  men 
to  condemnation  ;  even  so,  by  the  righteousness  of  One, 
the  free  gift  came  upon  all  men  unto  justification  of  life. 
For  as  by  one  man's  disobedience  many  were  made  sin- 
ners, so  by  the  obedience  of  one  shall  many  be  made 
righteous."  The  principle  of  representation  is  the  great 
principle  of  the  mediatorial  government ;  the  first  re- 
vealed to  man,  the  first  in  importance,  and  that  to  which 
every  legal  dispensation  is  subservient.  It  was  com- 
pletely developed  when  the  holy  Sufferer  of  Calvary 
stood  in  the  sinner's  place,  and  became  "  obedient  unto 
death,  even  the  death  of  the  Cross."  Though  both  God 
and  man,  he  "was  made  under  the  law,"  and  "  fulfilled 
all  righteousness."  He  had  no  native  pollution  like  other 
men,  and  he  committed  no  actual  transgression.  Tempta- 
tions and  trials  such  as  no  other  being  ever  endured,  the  se- 
ductions of  friends,  and  the  fury  of  enemies,  did  not  even 
contaminate  his  pure  and  holy  mind.  The  severe  tempta- 
tions of  the  wilderness  only  demonstrated  his  unbending 
integrity.  The  fiery  darts  of  the  adversary  fell  harmless 
at  his  feet,  quenched  and  cold  before  his  awful  goodness. 
Humbling  as  was  the  defeat  of  the  first,  triumphant  was 
the  victory  of  the  second  Adam  in  the  recovered  Para- 
dise. 

"  By  one  man's  firm  obedience  fully  tried, 
Through  all  temptation,  and  the  Tempter  foiled 
In  all  his  wiles,  dejected  and  repulsed, 
And  Eden  raised  in  the  waste  wilderness." 


THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION.         iQg 

Never  had  the  foe  been  driven  from  the  conflict  with 
such  defeat  and  shame,  and  never,  save  on  Calvary,  did 
the  Conqueror  win  such  unfading  laurels,  and  such  an 
untarnished  crown.  To  say  nothing  of  his  divine  cha- 
racter, the  perfect  ohedience  of  the  man  Christ  Jesus  is 
the  most  important  and  interesting  fact  in  the  history  of 
our  race.  It  stands  alone,  and  we  may  well  contemplate 
it  with  wonder.  Among  the  millions  who  have  already 
lived  upon  this  earth,  or  who  will  hereafter  be  found 
upon  it,  in  vain  may  you  seek  but  for  this  one  man,  who 
can  look  up  before  the  face  of  heaven,  and  assert  his 
rights  as  a  spotless,  unsinning  man  before  the  justice  of 
his  Maker.  One  there  is,  of  the  posterity  of  Adam,  in 
whom  the  race  may  glory.  Shame  and  confusion  of 
face  belong  to  us  ;  but  the  spotless  obedience  of  the  Vir- 
gin's Son  will  forever  remain  the  redeeming  quality  of 
human  nature.  But  this  alone  does  not  constitute  our 
vicarious  righteousness.  The  obedience  w^hich  gives  the 
believer  a  title  to  eternal  life,  is  the  obedience  of  the  God- 
man  Mediator,  and  more  especially  to  the  mediatorial 
law,  the  obligations  of  w^hich  he  had  voluntarily  assumed, 
and  which  required  him  to  suffer  and  die  in  the  place  of 
the  disobedient:  it  is  his  "obedience  unto  death.^^ 
Through  all  the  length  of  his  bitter  way  of  tears  and 
blood  he  held  his  course  sinless  and  uncontaminated,  till, 
with  the  same  spirit  which  led  him  to  say  in  anticipation 
of  his  work,  "  I  delight  to  do  thy  will,  0  God,"  he  could 
affirm  at  the  close  of  it,  and  with  no  consciousness  of  im- 
perfection, "  I  have  glorified  thee  on  the  earth,  I  have 
finished  the  work  thou  gavest  me  to  do,"  Into  this  en- 
tire course  of  spotless  and  self-denying  obedience  was 
thrown  the  whole  glory  of  God  manifested  in  human 
nature,  the  fullness  of  Him  in  whom  "  dwelleth  all  the 
fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily."    There  is  surely  some- 


no        THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION. 

thing  in  obedience  like  this  which  deserves  high  and  dis- 
tinguished approbation,  performed  as  it  was  by  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  in  subjection  to  a  law  to  which  it 
was  infinite  condescension  to  be  subjected,  and  not  for 
his  own  sake,  but  for  guilty  men.  There  is  merit  in  such 
a  righteousness,  and  it  deserves  reward.  From  beginning 
to  end  it  was  a  work  of  supererogation,  and  has  claims 
which  are  available,  not  to  the  sufferer  alone,  but  to  all 
those  whom  he  condescends  to  make  "bone  of  his  bone 
and  flesh  of  his  flesh." 

There  is  nothing  far-fetched  in  this.  If  ten  imper- 
fectly rigliteous  men  would  have  saved  Sodom,  what 
shall  not  such  a  righteousness  as  this  accomplish  1  If  it 
is  a  principle  of  the  divine  government  to  reward  perfect 
obedience,  what  shall  be  the  reward  of  him  with  whom 
the  Eternal  Father  is  so  "  well  pleased,"  and  so  "  de- 
lighteth  to  honor?"  What  is  there  unreasonable — what 
is  there  unscriptural— in  the  supposition,  that  in  carrying 
out  the  principle  of  representation  of  which  the  first 
Adam  was  "  a  figure,"  the  Supreme  Lawgiver  should 
constitute  the  second  Adam,  the  Lord  from  Heaven,  the 
representative  of  all  who  should  believe  in  him  ?  What 
if  he  should  award  to  the  obedient  Sufferer  of  Calvary 
the  boon  which  his  benevolent  mind  so  ardently  desired, 
the  "joy  that  was  set  before  him  "  when  he  endured  the 
Cross,  despising  the  shame?  What  if,  for  the  sake  of 
testifying  his  high  regard  for  a  perfect  righteousness, 
that  rare  pearl  m  our  fallen  World — a  righteousness  thus 
complete,  thus  perfected  by  all  the  glory  of  the  Divine 
Nature  added  to  the  sinless  obedience  of  the  man  Christ 
Jesus — he  should  allow  others  of  his  race,  and  purely 
for  his  sake,  to  have  the  full  benefits  of  his  own  solitary 
obedience?  What  if  he  should  become  "the  Lord 
THER  righteousness  ;"  and  since,  by  one  man's  offence, 


THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION.       m 

death  reigned  by  one,  mnch  more  they  which  receive 
abundance  of  grace  and  the  gift  of  righteousness  "should 
reign  in  life  by  One,  Jesus  Christ."  It  is  even  so.  This, 
as  I  read  the  Scriptures,  is  the  substance  of  their  instruc- 
tions on  the  subject  of  the  believer's  justification.  Such  is 
the  ground  and  meritorious  cause  of  his  being  accepted 
as  a  righteous  man.  This  is  his  sole  title  to  eternal  life. 
He  has  nothing  else,  seek  it  v/here  he  will.  It  is  not  his 
own  righteousness,  but  the  righteousness  of  another.  It  is 
not  what  he  has  done,  but  what  Christ  has  done.  It  is  not 
anything  within  himself,  but  something  out  of  himself, 
and  a  "  transaction  in  which  he  had  no  share."  It  is 
not  a  reward  for  services  which  he  has  rendered, 
but  a  reward  gratuitously  provided  and  bestowed  on 
him,  for  services  which  Christ  has  rendered.  It  is 
not  his  merit,  but  the  merit  of  One  into  whose  completed 
work  is  thrown  the  redundant  merit  of  his  humanity  and 
Deity  combined.  "  I  do  not  frustrate  the  grace  of  God  ; 
for  if  righteousness  come  by  the  law,  then  Christ  is  dead 
in  vain."  The  Apostle  Paul  "  counted  all  things  but 
loss,"  that  he  might  "be  found  in  him,  not  having  his 
own  righteousness  which  is  of  the  law,  but  that  which  is 
through  the  faith  of  Christ,  the  righteousness  which  is  of 
God  by  faith."  How  sure  the  title  !  How  much  more 
full  the  reward  than  if  the  believer  him.self  had  been 
sinless,  or  had  been  clad  in  the  most  spotless  robe  of  the 
purest  seraph  before  the  throne!  Well  did  the  great 
Mediator  say,  "  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life, 
and  that  they  might  have  it  more  abundantly  /" 

While  speaking  on  this  part  of  our  subject,  it  may  be 
desirable  for  us  to  have  some  definite  impression  of  what 
is  meant  by  the  righteousness  of  Christy  or  of  that  in 
which  this  righteousness  consists.  The  phrase  is  ob- 
viously used  in  the  New  Testament  to  denote  different 


X12        THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION. 

shades  of  thought.  It  is  called  the  righteousness  of 
Christ,  because  it  is  trul}^  and  properly  his,  and  per- 
formed by  him.  It  is  called  the  righteousness  of  God, 
because  it  is  the  method  of  justification  of  God's  provid- 
ing. It  is  called  the  righteousness  of  faith  in  distinction 
from  the  righteousness  which  is  of  the  law,  and  because 
it  is  received  by  faith.  Nor  is  it  unfrequently  represent- 
ed as  the  believer'' s  righteousness.  "  Surely  shall  one 
say,  In  the  Lord  have  I  righteousness  and  strength." 
The  Apostle  speaks  of  "  putting  on  Christ,"  and  the 
Prophet  represents  the  Church  as  saying,  "He  hath 
clothed  me  with  the  garments  of  salvation;  he  hath 
covered  me  with  the  robe  of  righteousness."  These  and 
similar  representations  express  the  thought,  that  it  is 
righteousness  which  is  made  over  to  the  believer,  and 
put,  as  it  were,  upon  him,  and  that  he  enjoys  the  full 
benefit  of  it  just  as  though  it  were  his  own.  I  do  not  find 
in  the  Scriptures  any  ground  for  the  distinction  between 
what  is  called  the  active  and  the  passive  obedience  of  the 
Mediator ;  or  between  his  obedience  to  the  precept,  and 
his  obedience  to  the  penalty,  of  the  law.  His  righteous- 
ness consists  in  both.  It  is  his  "  obedience  unto  death." 
It  is  "  his  will  to  serve,  and  his  will  to  suffer."  The  one 
may  not  be  separated  from  the  other.  It  "  was  obedience 
for  him  to  suffer,  and  it  was  suffering  for  him  to  obey." 
His  righteousness  may  be  said  to  consist  of  his  suffering 
obedience  and  his  obedient  suffering,  both  qualified  and 
receiving  their  high  character  from  his  two  distinct  na- 
tures as  God  and  man  in  one  person,  and  as  the  appoint- 
ed, voluntary  and  accepted  Mediator. 

The  inquiry  is  a  very  natural  one,  How  do  the  heiiefits 
of  the  Redeemer'' s  righteousness  become  ours  ?  The  answer 
is  easy  and  easily  understood.  The  righteousness- of 
Christ  is   not  infused  into  us,   imparted  to  us,   as  the 


THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION.        n^ 

Romanists  aflfirm ;  nor  is  it  in  any  way  transferred  to  us, 
as  has  been  incautiously  taught  by  some  loose  writers 
among  Protestants.  As  has  already  been  intimated,  ac- 
cording to  God's  gracious  method  of  reckoning  in  the 
Gospel,  believers  are  treated  as  righteous,  because  Christ 
himself,  their  covenant  head  and  representative,  is  right- 
eous. His  righteousness  is  imputed  to  them,  or  set  down 
to  their  account.  Though  it  does  not  properly  and  per- 
sonally belong  to  them,  it  is  reckoned  to  them  as  if  it 
were  their  own.  They  are  '^  made  the  righteousness  of 
God  in  him."  "  Blessed  is  the  man  to  whom  God  im- 
puteth  righteousness  without  works^^ — or  in  other  words, 
a  righteousness  which  he  himself  does  not  work  out. 
''  But  of  him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  of  God  is  made 
unto  us  righteousness."  But  there  is  another  idea  in  re- 
lation to  the  way  in  which  the  righteousness  of  Christ 
becomes  ours,  in  addition  to  the  fact  that  it  is  made  so  by 
God,  and  by  his  gracious  act  of  imputing  it.  It  becomes 
so  by  the  faith  of  those  who  receive  it.  All  mankind  are 
not  among  the  justified.  It  is  not  every  one  who  is  born 
in  Christian  lands,  nor  every  descendant  from  a  long 
line  of  pious  ancestry,  nor  every  one  who  recieves  the 
ordinance  of  baptism,  to  whom  "  Christ  is  the  end  of  the 
law  for  righteousness  :"  it  is  not  the  bold  infidel,  nor  the 
thoughtless  sinner,  nor  he  whose  god  is  mammon  :  it  is  not 
the^ Sabbath  breaker,  the  intemperate,  the  liar,  the  licen- 
tious :  no,  nor  yet  every  moral  man,  nor  every  serious 
man,  nor  every  awakened  sinner,  nor  every  man  who 
unites  himself  with  the  visible  Church  of  God.  Though 
the  righteousness  of  Christ  is  the  sole  ground  of  justifi- 
cation, that  justification  belongs  only  to  a  particular  and 
well-defined  class  of  men.  The  great  principle  of  the  Gos- 
pel on  this  point  is,  that  no  man  is  justified,  or  has  any 
part  in  the  righteousness  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  remains 


114        THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION. 

dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.  It  is  but  a  compendious  ex- 
pression of  this  equitable  principle,  that  this  righteousness 
be  received  by  faith,  as  well  as  imputed  by  God.  "Being 
justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God;" — "  All  that 
believe  are  justified ;" — "  The  justifier  of  him  that  be- 
lieveth  in  Jesus  ;" — "  He  that  believeth  shall  be  saved;" 
— "Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness,  to 
every  one  that  believeth  /"  To  all  believers  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ  stands  in  the  place  of  their  own,  and 
answers  the  same  ends.  All  others  are  under  the  curse. 
The  law  demands  the  imputed  righteousness  of  another 
on  its  own  account;  while  the  Gospel  demands  faith  in 
those  who  are  justified  on  their  account.  The  former  is 
demanded  by  the  Lawgiver  in  oider  to  vindicate  him  in 
justifying  those  who  have  violated  his  law  ;  the  latter  is 
demanded  by  the  moral  character  and  condition  of  apos- 
tate men,  which  disqualifies  and  forbids  them  from  en- 
joying the  benefits  of  this  salvation  without  becoming 
"the  children  of  God  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ."  Both 
are  equally  necessary,  though  for  different  reasons ;  the 
former  to  answer  the  claims  of  the  divine  law,  the  latter 
to  answer  the  restoring  and  purifying  ends  of  a  Gospel 
which  saves  not  in  sin,  but  from  sin. 

The  previous  thoughts  will  assist  us  in  determining  the 
question,  When  does  justification  take  place  ?  There  are 
two  errors  in  relation  to  the  time  of  justification — the  one 
referring  it  to  an  eternity  that  is  past,  the  other  referring 
it  to  the  judgment  that  is  to  come.  The  idea  that  it  does 
not  take  place  until  the  final  judgment  has  arisen  from 
the  impression,  that  as  it  is  a  judicial  act,  it  is  properly 
performed  only  by  the  Judge  as  seated  on  his  throne,  and 
from  the  fact  that  not  till  then  are  the  full  benefits  of  it 
realized.  But  this  latter  idea  overlooks  the  thought  so 
abundantly  taught  in  the  sacred  volume,  that  a  justified 


THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION.        n^ 

State  is  still  a  state  of  gracious  and  paternal  discipline. 
As  for  the  former,  it  is  a  mere  impression,  and  is  well 
countervailed  by  another  and  more  scriptural  impres- 
sion, that  God  has  not  left  his  people  to  the  barren  and 
comfortless  doctrine  that  their  acceptance  is  a  matter  to 
be  decided  on  hereafter.  The  Scriptures  speak  of  their 
justification  as  an  act  performed  in  time ;  nor,  with  but  a 
single  exception,  do  they  ever,  so  far  as  I  now  remember, 
speak  of  it  in  the  future  tense.  In  regard  to  the  notion 
of  eternal  justification,  while  the  reasoning  to  support  it 
is  intelligible,  it  is  inconclusive.  The  reasoning  is  this  : 
Since  the  meritorious  ground  of  justification  is  the  right- 
eousness of  another,  and  the  imputation  of  that  right- 
eousness the  act  of  God,  it  holds  good  for  the  ends  for 
which  it  was  designed  from  eternity ;  and  more  especially, 
as  God  from  eternity  purposed  to  justify  his  people,  must 
that  purpose  be  regarded  as  always  valid.  But  the  reason 
is  purely  sophistical.  If  the  purpose  of  God  to  justify  his 
people  was  to  justify  them  through  faith,  their  faith  as 
truly  entered  into  his  purpose  as  the  righteousness  of  his 
Son,  The  righteousness  of  Christ,  though  the  only  ground 
of  their  justification,  does  not  put  them  in  a  justified  state 
until  they  believe.  It  avails  them  nothing  in  unbelief. 
It  cannot  belong  to  them  before  they  receive  it,  any  more 
than  it  can  belong  to  them  if  they  never  receive  it.  "  He 
that  helieveth  not  is  condemned  already,  because  he  believeth 
not  in  the  name  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God.''''  Men 
are  very  apt  to  draw  false  conclusions  from  premises  that 
are  true,  when  they  disjoin  the  truth  of  God,  and  put  it 
out  of  its  proper  place.  Justification  respects  men  as 
believers  or  unbelievers,  and  not  as  elected  or  unelected. 
The  elect  are  unbelievers  until  they  believe.  They  are 
out  of  Christ  and  under  condemnation.  So  long  as  they 
abide  in  unbelief,  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  (hem,  and 


116       THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION. 

the  demands  of  his  justice  are  against  them  in  all  their 
force.  In  opposition  to  these  two  errors,  we  affirm  that 
God's  act  of  imputing-,  and  the  believer's  act  of  receiving-, 
the  righteousness  of  his  Son,  are  simultaneous.  The  act 
is  complete  at  the  time  of  its  being  performed.  It  is  a 
decision,  not  in  an  eternity  past,  nor  in  an  eternity  to 
come,  but  one  pronounced  in  time,  and  taking  effect  at 
once.  The  moment  a  sinner  believes,  he  passes  from  a 
state  of  condemnation  to  a  justified  state.  "  There  is 
no  condemnation  to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus." 
"  Whom  he  called,  them  he  also  justified."  Their  sanc- 
tification  is  progressive  ;  they  have  many  a  foe  to  struggle 
with,  and  not  a  few  mournful  inequalities  in  their  spiritual 
course ;  but  their  justification  is  as  complete  from  the 
moment  in  which  they  "receive  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord," 
as  it  will  be  when  they  stand  before  God  in  judgment. 
It  is  matured  from  the  first  and  always  matured  ;  because 
it  rests  not  upon  themselves,  but  upon  their  Divine  Mas- 
ter. It  varies  not  with  their  changeful  frames  and  feel- 
ings, nor  with  the  mutable  evidences  of  piety  within 
their  own  bosoms ;  because  it  rests  on  the  great  fact  that 
never  changes — the  Redeemer's  obedience  to  the  death 
of  the  Cross. 

One  of  the  great  attractions  of  the  Cross  therefore  is,  that 
it  furnishes  this  completed  justification.  This  is  one  of  its 
strong  attractions,  because  it  is  one  of  its  strong  truths. 
Be  not  tempted  to  glory  in  any  other,  or  to  dream  of  any 
other  way  of  making  your  cause  good  before  God,  save 
by  the  righteousness  of  faith.  It  is  a  fact  worthy  of 
remembrance  in  the  history  of  the  church,  that  those 
who  have  given  the  world  the  most  abundant  evidence 
of  large  measures  of  the  spirit  and  power  of  godliness, 
have  confided  least  in  their  own  righteousness,  and  most 
gloried  in  a  righteousness  not  their  own.     The  more  dis- 


THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION.        H'-J 

tinguished  you  are  in  spiritual  attainments,  and  the  nearer 
access  you  are  allowed  to  enjoy  to  the  unutterable  glory, 
the  more  will  you  "  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the 
excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  your  Lord." 
Let  this  great  truth  give  you  courage.  I  have  said 
that  it  is  a  strong  truth.  Where  is  there  a  stronger  truth 
than  that,  "  once  justified,  you  are  always  justified  1" 
Your  light  may  wax  and  wane ;  your  religious  experi- 
ence may  be  fitful,  and  your  hopes  alternately  bright  and 
obscured  ;  your  comforts  may  be  few,  or  many,  and  you 
may  be  growing  very  gradually  to  the  stature  of  a  perfect 
man  in  Jesus  Christ ;  but  there  is  no  waxing  or  waning, 
no  alternate  light  and  darkness,  no  growth  or  enlarge- 
ment of  your  justification.  It  matters  not  whether  he 
hopes,  or  fears — the  believer  is  justified.  Nothing  impairs 
the  righteousness  of  God  his  Saviour,  or  changes  his  divine 
promise  and  purpose.  His  own  hopes  may  be  obscuredj 
he  may  walk  in  darkness,  the  sin  that  dwelleth  in  him 
may  weaken  his  own  inward  sense  of  his  justification ; 
but  his  own  impressions  of  his  justification  are  not  his 
justification  itself.  He  may  come  to  the  tranquillity  of  a 
peaceful,  or  the  transports  of  a  triumphant  death,  or  may 
pass  away  under  the  cloud  ;  but  he  does  not  die  less  safely, 
because  he  may  die  less  triumphantly.  It  is  all  one  with 
him  when  he  dies,  or  where  he  dies,  or  how  he  dies ;  if 
a  believer  in  Jesus,  he  dies  safely.  His  justification  is 
the  same,  "  whether  he  dies  to-day,  or  fifty  years  hence." 
He  may  say  more  boldly,  but  he  can  never  say  more  truly, 
''  In  the  Lord  have  I  righteousness  and  strength,"  than 
in  "that  blessed  hour  when  he  first  received  him."  It 
is  as  true  now,  when  he  may  peradventure  be  passing 
many  a  gloomy  day  under  the  hidings  of  God's  face, 
that  neither  the  law,  nor  sin,  nor  death,  nor  hell,  can 
"lay  anything  to  the  -charge  of  God's  elect,"  because 


118       THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION. 

"  it  is  God  that  justifieth,"  as  it  will  be  when  every  cloud 
is  scattered  and  his  Sun  goes  down  upon  his  throne  of 
gold.  Trembling-  believer,  distressed  believer,  nothing 
shall  separate  you  from  the  Cross.  You  may  lose  sight 
of  the  Cross,  but  the  Cross  will  not  lose  sight  of  you. 
You  may  lose  your  hold  upon  the  Cross,  but  the  Cross 
will  not  lose  its  hold  upon  you.  "  Whom  he  justified, 
them  he  also  glorified."  "  Being  now  justified  by  his 
blood,  w^e  shall  be  saved  from  wrath  through  him." 

Let  this  great  truth  also  keep  you  humble.  "  Here 
grace  reigns."  You  have  nothing  whereof  to  glory. 
The  Cross  is  the  attraction  of  grace.  Born  under  a  broken 
covenant,  and  possessing  a  character  matured  in  practical 
wickedness,  justice  binds  you  over  to  all  the  law  can 
inflict ;  but  in  the  place  of  this  condemnation,  you  have 
a  justifying  righteousness  wrought  out  by  another,  which 
is  itself  both  the  expression  and  the  gift  of  grace  unut- 
terably rich  and  free.  "  Though  ye  have  lain  among 
the  pots,  yet  shall  ye  be  as  the  wings  of  a  dove  covered 
with  silver,  and  her  feathers  with  yellow  gold."  "  Thou 
art  all  fair,  my  love,  there  is  no  spot  in  thee."  "  Come 
and  hear,  all  ye  that  fear  God,  and  I  will  declare  what 
he  hath  done  for  my  soul ;"  for  he  "  hath  clothed  me 
wdth  the  garments  of  salvation,  he  hath  covered  me  with 
the  robe  of  righteousness."  "  Not  unto  me,  0  Lord,  not 
unto  me,  but  to  thy  name  give  glory !" 

The  Cross  is  a  withering  thought  to  all  the  hopes  of  the 
purely  self-righteous.  The  vain  effort  to  make  your  way 
to  heaven  by  "  works  of  righteousness  which  you  have 
done,"  is  only  to  rush  on  the  avenger's  sword.  Your 
courage  will  fail.  You  are  welcome  to  the  eflfort ;  but 
you  have  no  alternative  but  to  abide  the  precept  and 
fulfil  the  law.  And  I  forewarn  you  that  it  will  cost  you 
care  and  pains,  watchfulness  and  agony,  utterly  beyond 


THE    CROSS    A    COMPLETED    JUSTIFICATION.        HQ 

the  power  of  man.  Already  have  you  a  burden  of  guilt 
too  heavy  to  be  borne.  And  when  you  have  struggled 
with  it  till  your  strength  withers,  and  every  hope  is 
crushed,  and  your  heart  sinks  within  you,  I  pray  God  it 
may  not  be  too  late  for  you  to  look  to  the  Cross  of  the 
atoning,  justifying  Saviour,  and  remember  who  it  was 
that  "  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


FAITH    IN     THE    CROSS. 


Unless  we  adopt  the  most  dangerous  error,  we  cannot 
deny  that  the  Cross  saves  only  those  who  believe.  Until 
a  man  believes  the  Gospel,  he  is  under  the  curse  of  the 
law ;  and  if  he  never  believes  it,  under  the  curse  he  must 
remain.  Faith,  on  his  part,  is  as  necessary  to  his  justi- 
fication, as  the  righteousness  of  Christ  is  necessary,  on 
God's  part,  in  receiving  him  into  favor.  The  language 
of  the  Scriptures,  on  this  point,  is  as  explicit  as  it  can  be. 
The  death  of  Christ  is  declared  to  be  a  propitiation 
through  '  ^  faith  in  his  blood.''  "  Being  j  ustified  by  faith, ' ' 
says  the  apostle,  "  we  have  peace  with  God."  "  The 
righteousness  of  God"  is  affirmed  to  be  "  by  the  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ.''  It  is  "  unto  all,  and  upon  all  them  that 
believe."  "  A  man  is  not  justified  by  the  works  of  the 
law,  but  by  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ."  "  The  Scriptures 
conclude  all  under  sin,  that  the  promise,  hy  faith  in  Jesus 
Christy  might  be  given  to  all  them  that  believe." 

In  speaking,  therefore,  of  the  attraction  of  the  Cross, 
we  may  not  overlook  the  thought,  that  it  is  the  object  of 
saving  faith.  What  is  the  faith  of  the  Gospel  ?  and  why 
do  the  Scriptures  attach  so  much  importance  to  this  par- 
ticular grace,  rather  than  any  other,  as  the  revealed 
condition  of  salvation  ?  These  two  inquiries  present  the 
outline  of  the  present  chapter. 


FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS. 


121 


What  is  the  faith  of  the  Gospel  ?  There  are  various 
graces  of  the  Christian  character,  each  of  which  possesses 
properties  peculiar  to  itself.  The  distinctive  character  of 
each  is  decided  by  the  object  towards  which  it  is  appropri- 
ately exercised.  None  of  them  exist  in  the  soul  until  it 
is  converted  to  God,  and  acquires  that  new  and  spiritual 
life  whereby  the  mind  perceives  new  truths,  and  truths 
formerly  perceived,  with  new  and  holy  affections.  They 
are  not  the  production  of  nature,  nor  superinduced  by  any 
human  discipline,  or  any  persuasion  or  ingenuity  of  man, 
but  wrought  out  and  perfected  by  the  spirit  of  God.  "  If 
any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature."  The  ele- 
mentary principles  of  faith  are  the  same  in  all  good  men, 
and  are  found  in  substance  in  every  regenerated  mind. 
But  it  does  not  follow,  that  all  the  exercises  of  the  re- 
newed mind  are  of  the  same  specific  character.  Love 
to  God  is  not  repentance ;  humility  is  not  submission,  nor 
is  submission  joy,  nor  is  either  of  them  faith.  Love  to 
God  is  exercised  in  view  of  the  divine  character;  re- 
pentance in  the  more  immediate  view  of  sin ;  hu- 
mility in  view  of  personal  unworthiness  and  ill-desert ; 
submission  in  view  of  those  dispensations  of  the  divine 
government  in  which  the  will  of  God  is  opposed  to  our 
own;  and  faith  in  view  of  the  method  of  salvation  hy  Christ. 
The  Cross  is  the  peculiar  and  distinctive  object  of  be- 
lieving. Faith  is  the  act  of  the  mind  which  "  receives 
and  rests  upon  Christ  alone,  for  salvation,  as  he  is  freely 
offered  in  the  Gospel."  God  makes  a  grant  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  Gospel  to  men  as  sinners.  It  is  his  own 
method  of  mercy,  and  is  proposed  to  men  with  all  its 
fullness,  simply  on  the  testimony  of  its  divine  Author. 
Jesus  Christ  complained  of  the  Jews  because  they  "  re- 
ceived the  testimony  of  men,"  but  not  "  the  testimony  of 
God,  which  is  greater."  It  is  the  peculiar  province  of 
6 


122  FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS. 

faith  to  receive  this  testimony,  because  it  is  his  testimony 
who  "  cannot  lie."  In  receiving  this  testimony,  it  re- 
ceives and  rests  upon  Christ  for  salvation.  Impressed 
with  the  conviction  of  his  own  utter  inability  to  meet  the 
demands  of  the  divine  law,  perceiving  by  the  Cross  where 
those  demands  are  met,  sensible  that  none  but  that  great 
Sufferer  can  deliver  him  from  going  down  to  the  pit,  and 
appreciating  Christ  Jesus  as  "  the  end  of  the  law  for 
righteousness,"  the  sinner  reposes  his  confidence  on 
that  finished  redemption.  By  this  act  of  the  mind  he 
becomes  a  believer.  Christ  is  his  hope,  and  his  Cross 
his  refuge.  What  things  were  gain  to  him  he  now 
counts  loss  for  Christ ;  his  wisdom,  folly;  his  own  right- 
eousness, as  filthy  rags ;  his  former  glory,  but  his  present 
shame ;  his  former  security,  but  refuges  of  lies  ;  his  for- 
mer hopes,  but  a  spider's  web  : — "  Yea,  doubtless,  he 
counts  all  things  but  loss,  for  the  excellency  of  the  know- 
ledge of  Christ  Jesus,  his  Lord."  This  is  the  faith  of 
the  Gospel.  It  is  the  combined  act  of  the  understanding 
and  the  affections.  It  carries  with  it  the  intellect,  but 
much  more  the  heart.  It  is  the  assent  of  the  understand- 
ing and  the  consent  of  the  will,  uniting  in  a  satisfied  and 
gratified  persuasion  and  confidence  of  the  whole  soul  to 
the  record  which  God  has  given  concerning  his  Son.  It 
is  the  grace  which  ''sets  to  his  seal  that  God  is  true," 
and  by  which  an  apostate  sinner  has  a  legitimate  title  to 
the  name  of  Christian.  Whatever  concerns  the  Cross  of 
Christ  is  a  peculiarly  interesting  topic  of  thought  to  such 
a  man.  His  faith  looks  to  Christ  as  the  God-man  Medi- 
ator, coming  to  redeem  a  ruined  world  ;  as  making 
an  end  of  sin,  and  bringing  in  everlasting  righteous- 
ness ;  as  triumphing  over  death  and  the  grave,  as- 
cending into  heaven  and  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of 
God,  there,  by  the  influence  of  his  character  and  work,  to 


FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS.  ^n'i 


lis 


make  intercession  for  his  people.  It  appropriates  tl 
Saviour,  in  all  his  characters,  as  Prophet,  Priest  and  King, 
atoning  by  his  death,  instructing  by  his  word,  and  rescu- 
ing, defending  and  ruling  by  his  power.  It  apprehends 
him  as  a  complete  and  perfect  Saviour,  securing  all  that 
the  sinner  most  needs  and  desires,  all  that  is  most  valua- 
ble to  the  life  that  now  is.  and  that  which  is  to  come.  It 
forms  the  bond  of  union  between  Christ  and  the  soul,  as 
the  Finisher  as  well  as  the  Author  of  salvation,  as  the 
head  of  all  gracious  influences,  and  as  the  only  way  of 
"  increasing  in  all  the  increase  of  God."  Such  is  the 
faith  of  the  Gospel. 

But  the  main  object  of  the  present  chapter  is  to  show, 
why  the  Scriptures  attach  so  much  importance  to  this  par- 
ticular grace,  as  the  revealed  condition  of  salvation,  rather 
than  to  any  other.  That  they  do  so  is  obvious,  and  there 
are  not  wanting  important  reasons  for  this  wise  and  even 
necessary  arrangement. 

In  adverting  to  some  of  these,  it  must  strike  every 
mind,  that  in  the  method  of  salvation  by  the  Cross  there 
is  a  demand  for  faith,  which  the  exercise  of  no  other 
Christian  grace  can  satisfy.  There  are  things  to  be 
believed,  to  be  believed  with  the  heart ;  and  they  are 
strange  and  wonderful  things.  Some  of  them  constitute 
the  mysteries  of  godliness.  They  are  not  the  objects  of 
human  reason ;  they  are  not  the  subjects  of  observation 
and  experiment ;  they  are  not  capable  of  that  sort  of 
demonstration  which  is  peculiar  to  those  more  exact  sci- 
ences where  the  human  intellect  riots  and  revels  in  the 
discovery  and  enjoyment  of  its  own  high  faculties.  They 
are  God  in  human  nature ;  they  are  the  infinite  Deity,  so 
loving  a  w^orm  of  the  dust  as  to  abandon  his  own  Son  to 
the  agonies  of  the  Cross;  they  are  the  substitution  of  the 
innocent  for  the  guilty,  and  the  efficacy  of  that  substitu- 


124  FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS. 

tion,  in  defiance  of  all  that  is  degrading  and  condemning 
in  human  wickedness,  all  that  is  imperative  in  the  claims 
of  the  divine  law,  all  that  is  terrible  in  death  and  the  grave, 
and  all  that  is  mighty  in  the  powers  of  darkness.  Now, 
no  other  grace  is  fitted  to  come  in  the  place  of  faith,  when 
such  wonderful  proposals  as  these  are  made  to  the  human 
mind.  Love  cannot  reach  them  ;  penitence  cannot  reach 
them  ;  humility  cannot  reach  them ;  patience  and  meek- 
ness, long-suffering  and  self-denial,  cannot  reach  them. 
They  are  the  peculiar  and  exclusive  objects  oi  faith — of 
implicit  faith  in  the  divine  testimony.  They  make  their 
appeal,  not  to  sense,  not  to  reason — for  they  are  above  and 
beyond  reason — but  to  faith.  So  far  are  they  beyond  the 
range  of  human  thoughts,  that  it  is  impossible  to  receive 
them  without  an  unhesitating  confidence  in  their  divine 
Author.  The  Gospel  is  a  revelation  of  wonderful  truths 
and  wonderful  claims.  It  sets  before  us  a  mighty  Saviour, 
and  bids  us  trust  in  him.  It  tells  us  that  God  is  just  while 
he  justifies,  and  calls  upon  us  to  believe  it.  It  assures 
us  that  he  is  able  to  keep  that  which  we  have  committed 
to  him,  and  requires  us  to  be  satisfied  that  he  is  so.  It 
reveals  to  us  the  duties  of  our  high  calling,  the  perils  of 
our  course,  the  conflicts  with  the  sin  that  dwelleth  in  us, 
and  with  the  world  and  the  adversary  without  us  ;  and 
while  it  promises  that  "  as  our  day  is,  so  shall  our  strength 
be,"  directs  us  to  confide  in  that  promise,  and  go  on  our 
way  rejoicing.  It  points  to  the  chamber  of  death,  and 
bids  us  to  go  up  to  it  with  peace,  because  Jesus  died.  It 
points  to  the  dark  valley,  and  bids  us  go  down  through  all 
its  gloomy  darkness,  with  a  confidence  and  peace  which 
the  world  cannot  give,  because  *'  he  rose  again."  It 
tells  us  to  go  forward,  when,  to  mere  sense  and  reason,  all 
is  midnight  darkness.  And  it  calls  upon  us  cheerfully  to 
venture  on  the  ocean  of  eternity,  because  the  God  of 


FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS.  125 

truth  assures  us  that  all  will  be  well,  and  that  we  shall 
reach  the  haven  at  last.  Compliance  w^ith  these  high 
claims  is  not  only  the  act  of  faith,  but  of  no  other  grace. 
'No  other  grace  can  confide  thus.  Reason  can  discover 
that  a  God  who  is  infinitely  lovely  deserves  to  be  loved ; 
that  sin  infinitely  hateful  ought  to  be  hated  j  and  that  the 
word  of  the  God  of  truth  ought  to  be  believed ;  while  to 
believe  such  things  as  these  is  not  the  province  of  reason. 
''  Thomas,"  said  our  divine  Lord,  to  one  of  his  own 
family,  "  because  thou  hast  seen  me,  thou  hast  believed; 
blessed  are  they  that  have  not  seen,  and  yet  have 
believed."  This  is  the  peculiar  and  high  province  of 
faith.  The  "things  which  God  hath  revealed  by  his 
Spirit,  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  nor  have  they 
entered  into  the  mind  of  man."  And  though  these 
things  constitute  no  arbitrary  demand  on  human  credu- 
lity, they  constitute  a  demand  upon  human  confidence 
that  is  absolute.  Nothing  else  can  be  a  substitute  for 
faith,  while  faith  itself  supplies  the  place  of  vision,  and 
is  a  substitute  for  all  other  evidence.  Here  lies,  not  only 
the  power,  but  the  indispensable  necessity,  of  this  par- 
ticular act  of  the  soul.  It  is  a  sort  of  vision,  and  comes  in 
place  of  the  evidence  of  the  senses.  It  is  what  no  other 
Christian  grace  can  be—"  the  substance  of  things  hoped 
for,  and  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen."  It  does_what 
nothing  else  can  do,  by  uniting  the  soul  to  him  who 
"of  God  is  made  to  us  wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctifi- 
cation  and  redemption."  It  meets  the  Deity  in  the  reve- 
"Tatibns  he  has  made  of  himself  in  the  person  of  his  Son, 
and  falls  in  with  the  nature  and  design  of  this  wonderful 
redemption.  It  is  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  man,  what 
this  method  of  redemption  is  in  the  mind  and  heart  of 
God— its  only  true  and  proper  counterpart.  When 
brought  together,  they  are  like  two  detached  parts  of  the 


126  FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS. 

same  machinery,  exacty  fitted  to  one  another.  While 
this  redemption,  in  all  its  parts,  commends  itself  to  faith, 
faith,  by  indissoluble  terrors  and  fastenings,  becomes 
united  to  this  redemption,  inwrought  in  its  deep  founda- 
tions. 

Another  reason  why  the  Scriptures  give  this  promi- 
nence to  faith,  rather  than  to  any  other  grace,  is,  that  it 
is  the  most  complete  and  most  emphatic  expression  of  the 
Christian  character.  The  place  which  the  Cross  occu- 
pies in  the  system  of  revealed  truth,  faith  in  the  Cross 
occupies  in  experimental  and  spiritual  religion.  It  is 
that  peculiar  act  of  the  soul  by  which  it  takes  hold  of 
evidence  that  addresses  itself  to  the  heart,  and  by  which 
the  heart  expands  itself  to  all  the  affectionate,  humbling, 
submissive  and  hallowed  influences  of  the  truth  of  God. 
The  Cross  as  truly  discloses  the  heart  of  the  Deity  as  his 
intelligence,  and  is  not  more  a  revelation  of  the  wisdom  of 
God  than  of  his  love.  While  the  intellect  of  the  believ- 
er, therefore,  assents  to  the  great  truths  that  are  there 
revealed,  the  heart  of  the  believer  confides  in  the  heart 
of  the  atoning  Saviour.  There  are  motives  and  argu- 
ments which  the  heart  feels  as  well  as  the  understand- 
ing ;  nor  is  unbelief  so  much  an  error  in  judgment,  as  it 
is  proof  that  the  heart  is  not  right  in  the  sight  of  God. 
The  faith  of  the  Gospel  is  not  that  passive  conviction  that 
is  constrained  where  there  is  no  willing  mind.  There 
are  some  things  which  men  cannot  disbelieve  if  they 
were  ever  so  much  disposed,  but  the  Gospel  is  not  one  of 
them.  Or,  to  express  the  same  thought  in  a  different 
form,  there  are  some  things  which  men  cannot  help  be- 
lieving ;  but  there  is  no  moral  value  in  such  a  faith  as 
this,  nor  is  it  at  all  indicative  of  the  state  of  the  heart. 
"  Thou  belie  vest  there  is  one  God  ;  thou  doest  well ;  the 
devils  also  believe,  and  tremble."     The  faith  of  devils 


FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS.  jgiy 

surely  is  not  the  faith  of  the  people  of  God.  They  be- 
lieve in  the  facts  and  principles  revealed  in  the  Bible, 
because  they  cannot  help  believing  them.  They  are  none 
the  better  for  believing  them,  because  they  see  them. 
No  man  is  any  the  better  for  believing  that  the  sun  shines 
when  he  sees  it,  or  for  believing  that  the  whole  is  greater 
than  its  parts.  No  matter  how  unwilling  he  is  to  be- 
lieve, his  reluctance  is  overcome  by  evidence,  and,  just 
like  the  devils,  he  is  forced  to  believe,  whether  he  will 
or  no. 

But  it  is  not  so  with  regard  to  the  faith  of  the  Gospel. 
It  is  a  very  easy  thing  for  men  to  reject  the  testimony 
which  God  has  given  concerning  his  Son.  They  are 
naturally  and  very  strongly  inclined  to  reject  it.  It  con- 
tains principles  that  are  at  war  with  all  their  idolatry  of 
self,  with  all  their  pride  and  love  of  sinning.  Nor  do  they 
ever  at  heart  believe  it  until  their  selfishness,  and  pride, 
and  love  of  sinning  have  received  a  deadly  wound  from 
the  Cross.  The  world  around  them  are  unbelievers,  and 
it  requires  no  small  degree  of  moral  courage,  and  self- 
denial,  cheerfully  and  from  the  whole  soul  to  receive 
that  system  of  truth  which  most  men  scorn.  The  Scrip- 
tures, therefore,  are  careful  to  inform  us,  that  "  with  the 
heart,  man  belie veth  unto  righteousness,"  and  that  the 
faith  which  unites  the  soul  to  Christ  possesses  high  and 
heaven-born  properties.  There  is  no  atoning  virtue  in 
faith,  but  there  is  moral  virtue  in  it ;  and  it  is  the  most 
complete  and  emphatic  expression  of  the  Christian  char- 
acter. It  is  not  by  a  law  of  nature  that  men  exer- 
cise it,  but  a  law  of  grace.  Unbelief  wilfully  rejects  the 
testimony  of  God,  and  is  the  damning  sin  of  the  soul. 
Faith  receives  that  testimony,  makes  it  welcome,  and 
cherishes  it.  It  is  the  ripest  and  choicest  fruit  of  the 
spirit.     It  is  the  consenting  will,  a  will  that  confides  in 


228  FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS. 

God,  a  will  that  God  requires ;  and  is,  therefore,  an  act 
of  obedience.  It  is  the  love  of  the  truths  which  it  re- 
ceives ;  for  this  is  the  great  distinction  between  a  false 
and  a  true  faith,  the  former  believing  what  it  hates,  and 
the  latter  what  it  loves.  God  is  its  ultimate  object,  and 
therefore  is  it  an  expression  of  love  to  God.  As  the  act  of 
a  mind  that  desires  to  be  delivered  from  the  power  of 
sin,  and  for  that  purpose  repairs  to  the  great  Saviour,  it 
is  a  true  expression  of  godly  repentance.  It  is  from  its 
very  nature,  too,  the  most  self-renouncing  and  humble  of 
all  graces.  The  great  sentiment  of  faith  is,  that  sal- 
vation, so  far  from  being  of  works  or  any  merit  in  the 
creature,  is  all  of  sovereign  mercy — grace,  mere  grace, 
the  riches  of  grace.  Its  prominent  and  inwrought  im- 
pulse is,  that  the  sinner  has  no  pretensions  to  a  justifying 
righteousness  of  his  own ;  that  he  is  guilty  and  ill-deserv- 
ing ;  that  he  has  no  claims,  and  throws  himself  wholly 
upon  the  righteousness  of  another.  And,  therefore,  it  is 
not  only  an  humble  grace,  but  a  significant  expression  of 
deep  humility  of  soul.  Nor  is  it  less  an  expression  of  that 
Christian  submission  which  prefers  the  will  of  God  to  its 
own  will ;  for,  in  no  act  is  the  sovereignty  of  the  great 
God  more  distinctly  recognized  than  in  the  act  of  faith. 
God  has  his  proper  place  then,  and  the  sinner  his  :  God 
has  the  throne,  and  the  sinner  is  in  the  dust.  There  are 
no  sorer  struggles  with  the  natural  man,  no  severer  con- 
flicts with  flesh  and  blood,  no  fiercer  warfare  with  the 
proud  and  self-righteous,  the  rebellious,  obdurate,  and 
obdurately  impenitent  heart,  than  that  through  which  it 
is  brought  before  it  exercises  the  affectionate,  the  dutiful, 
the  penitent,  the  humble,  the  submissive  act  of  faith  in 
the  Cross.  By  nothing  is  the  Christian  character  put  to 
a  severer  test.  The  man  who  is  enabled,  in  the  face  of 
this  ungodly  world,  where  the  Cross  of  Christ  is  a  stum- 


FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS.  jgg 

bling  block  and  foolishness,  and  in  those  varied  cdn- 
ditions  where  bis  faith  is  tried,  so  to  contend  against  his 
spiritual  enemies,  as  to  believe,  and  live  by  the  faith  of 
the  Son  of  God,  is,  and  shows  himself  to  be,  what  Abra- 
ham, the  father  of  the  faithful  was — the  friend  of  God. 
The  reason,  therefore,  is  obvious  why  God  has  made 
faith  in  the  Cross  the  condition  of  salvation.  It  is  a 
plain  and  important  principle  in  the  divine  government, 
that  he  cannot  be  reconciled  to  men  so  long  as  they  remain 
his  enemies.  If  they  remain  enemies  to  him,  they  are 
enemies  to  his  kingdom,  and  enemies  to  all  righteous- 
ness ;  and  as  such,  cannot  be  treated  as  his  friends.  It 
is  a  right  principle,  and  for  the  Deity  not  to  act  upon  it 
would  be  wrong.  The  divine  nature,  the  divine  law, 
and  all  the  sacred  designs  of  the  Cross,  necessarily  ex-  ' 
elude  all  such  persons  from  the  divine  favor.  The 
question,  whether  or  not  a  man  believes  in  Jesus  Christ, 
is  the  test  question,  and  shows  whether  he  is  the  friend 
of  God,  or  his  enemy.  Men  who  persuade  themselves 
that  they  love  God,  and  mourn  for  their  sins,  and  rejoice 
in  his  government,  are  mistaken,  unless  they  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ.  Men  who  persuade  themselves  that  they 
are  religious  men,  and  respect  the  divine  authority,  and 
delight  to  do  God's  will,  are  grossly  deceived,  unless 
from  the  heart  they  believe  in  Jesus  Christ.  They  are 
not  so  compliant  with  their  duty  as  they  suppose.  They 
are  not  such  lovers  of  righteousness,  and  such  respecters 
of  religion  and  God's  authoriry,  as  they  profess  to  be. 
The  proof  of  their  wickedness  lies  in  the  fact,  that  they 
despise  this  great  Messenger  of  his  truth  and  grace,  and 
will  not  honor  the  God  of  heaven  by  "  believing  on  Him 
whom  he  hath  sent."  The  Bible  thinks  very  little  of 
the  religion  of  those  who  will  not  believe  in  the  Son  of 
God.     If  they  were  the  friends  of  God,  they  would  re- 


130  FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS. 

ceive  his  Son.  Every  man  "  that  hath  heard  and  learned 
of  the  Father  cometh  unto  me.  If  any  man  will  come  in 
his  own  name,  him  ye  will  receive ;  I  am  come  in  my 
Father's  name,  and  me  ye  receive  not.  The  Father 
himself  hath  sent  me,  and  ye  have  not  his  word  abiding 
in  you.  I  know  you,  that  ye  have  not  the  love  of  God  in 
you."  If  there  is  wisdom  and  rectitude,  therefore,  in  that 
great  principle  of  the  divine  government  which  makes 
a  difference  between  the  precious  and  the  vile,  there  is 
reason  for  making  faith  the  condition  of  salvation  ;  for 
they,  and  they  alone,  are  good  men  who  believe. 

There  is  another  reason  why  faith  holds  this  promi- 
nent place.  Without  the  faith  of  the  Gospel,  it  is  im- 
possible, in  the  nature  of  things,  that  the  hopes  and  blessed- 
ness of  its  redemption  should  be  conveyed  to  the  soul.  The 
Cross  of  Christ  was  designed  to  convey  pardon,  peace, 
hope,  joy,  delight  in  every  duty,  and  the  vivid  and 
strong  expectation  of  eternal  life.  Faith  receives  these 
blessings,  and  faith  alone.  If  it  be  said  that  the  love  of 
God,  and  a  godly  repentance,  and  a  deep  humiliation  of 
soul  before  God,  and  unconditional  submission  to  his 
will,  constitute  a  state  of  mind  that  brings  with  it  its 
joys,  and  that  it  is  impossible  to  make  that  man  unhappy 
who  is  in  the  exercise  of  such  a  state  of  mind  ;  if  it  be 
said,  moreover,  that  there  are  thousands  of  instances  in 
which  men  are  conscious  of  these  gracious  exercises,  who 
are  not  conscious  of  a  trusting  and  peaceful  confidence 
in  Jesus  Christ  as  their  Saviour,  and  therefore  thai  faith 
is  not  necessarily  indispensable  to  the  spiritual  enjoy- 
ment ;  I  beg  that  these  assertions  may  be  examined. 
And  I  advert  to  them  the  more  freely,  because  in  former 
years  I  have  given  more  weight  to  them  than  I  now  do. 
We  go  back  to  our  last  thought,  and  form  issue  with 
the  objector,  and  say,  that  there  is  no  love,  no  repent- 


FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS.  131 

ance,  no  submission,  and  no  obedience,  where  there  is 
not  an  actual  reception  of  Christ.  Nor  do  we  rest  this 
position  simply  on  the  truths  just  now  illustrated.  There 
is  no  medium  between  accepting  and  rejecting  the  offers 
of  God's  mercy  through  his  Son.  If  men  reject  him, 
their  supposed  graces  are  but  a  name ;  for  if  they  had 
the  love  of  God  in  them,  and  truly  humbled  themselves 
before  him  for  their  iniquities,  and  possessed,  in  fact,  a 
readiness  to  do  his  will,  they  would  not  reject  his  well- 
beloved  Son.  It  is  in  vain  that  they  profess  to  love  the 
Father  and  reject  the  Son ;  to  turn  from  their  iniquities, 
and  at  the  same  time  reject  him  who  alone  saves  his  peo- 
ple from  their  sins ;  to  profess  an  humble  and  contrite 
spirit,  and  turn  away  from  him  whose  salvation  is  the 
sweetest  expression  of  that  spirit ;  to  be  submissive  to  the 
will  of  God,  and  reject  him  who  comes  with  a  commis- 
sion from  heaven  to  publish  that  will  to  men.  They 
may  have  a  sort  of  submission,  but  it  is  the  submission 
of  melancholy  despair,  and  if  it  finds  not  its  way  to  the 
Cross,  will  end  in  conscious  rebellion.  Men  may  have  a 
sort  of  obedience  without  faith,  but  it  is  the  obedience  of 
servitude  and  terror,  and  will,  ere  long,  break  its  chains. 
That  they  have  anything  of  true  love  of  God,  is  impos- 
sible;  for  the  Saviour  himself  being  judge,  there  is  no 
higher  proof  that  they  "  have  not  the  love  of  God  in 
them,"  than  that  they  reject  his  Son.  The  truth  is,  that 
as  there  is  no  faith  in  Christ  where  there  is  no  love  to 
God,  so  there  is  no  love  to  God  where  there  is  no  faith 
in  Christ.  They  spring  up  in  the  soul  together,  and  the 
germinant  principle  of  them  is  imparted  when  it  is  created 
anew  in  Christ  Jesus.  I  have  yet  to  learn  that  the 
love  of  God  is  ever  shed  abroad  in  the  heart  save  in  the 
view  of  the  Cross.  The  obligation  of  men  to  love  him, 
wholly  and  forever,  were  there  no  Gospel,  and  were  they 


132  FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS. 

always  under  the  curse,  may  not,  most  certainly,  be 
called  in  question  ;  while  it  is  equally  true,  that  it  is  only 
under  that  dispensation  of  mercy,  by  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  that  the  power  of  the  ever-blessed  Spirit  is  im- 
parted to  give  birth  to  the  love  of  God,  and  that  the  way 
of  his  doing  this  is  through  the  instrumentality  of  that 
truth  of  which  the  Cross  is  the  most  emphatic  expression. 
The  true  way  of  loving  God  is  to  believe  in  his  Son, 
and  the  true  way  of  believing  in  his  Son  is  to  love 
God.  The  carnal  mind,  which  is  enmity  against  God, 
does  not  believe  in  Christ ;  neither  does  the  unbeliev- 
ing mind,  that  rejects  Christ,  dismiss  its  enmity  to  God. 
Those  who  are  under  strong  convictions  of  sin,  and 
have  recently  passed  from  death  unto  life,  do  not  stop  to 
analyze  their  emotions  ;  while  older  saints,  and  those  who 
have  learnt  to  say,  "  It  is  not  I  that  live,  but  Christ  that 
liveth  in  me,"  know  that  they  love  most,  when  nearest 
the  Cross.  All  the  love  to  God,  and  all  the  obedience 
to  his  will,  that  ever  existed  in  our  fallen  world,  and 
which  now  exists,  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  revelation  of 
God  in  the  person  of  his  Son,  and  to  a  cordial  reception 
of  him  as  thus  revealed.  Take  away  the  Cross  of  Christ, 
and  you  leave  men  under  the  curse  of  abandonment: 
God  hides  his  face ;  his  throne  is  covered  with  darkness  ; 
he  is  a  consuming  fire,  and  determined  only  to  destroy. 
Away  from  the  Cross,  men  are  doomed  to  enmity,  and 
to  all  the  penal  consequences  of  that  enmity.  While  he 
relaxes  not  the  obligation  of  loving  him,  God  will  not 
allow  them  the  privilege  of  loving  him,  nor  permit  their 
woes  to  be  alleviated  by  one  emotion  of  complacent 
regard  for  his  character,  or  benevolenoe  toward  himself. 
The  true  idea  the  Scriptures  give  of  love  to  God  is,  that 
it  is  that  affection  which  makes  him  the  supreme  good, 
and  chief  happiness  and  joy  of  the  soul.     And  do  we  need 


FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS.  135 

proof  that  men  enjoy  God,  and  make  him  their  highest 
good  and  portion,  only  as  he  is  accessible  through  Jesus 
Christ,  and  as  faith  fixes  her  eye  upon  him  in  the  Gospel  1 
Far  be  it  from  me  to  desire  to  wound  the  weakest  believer, 
or  to  discourage  and  depress  those  of  little  faith.  I  would 
much  rather  conclude  that  those  who  are  thus  supposed  to 
have  some  gracious  affections  but  no  faith,  take  a  partial 
and  perverted  view  of  their  own  case ;  and  that  while  they 
themselves  may  not  be  conscious  of  the  actings  of  faith  in 
Christ,  and  from  a  sinful  shamefacedness  are  slow  to 
acknowledge  they  possess  it,  lest  they  should  profess  more 
than  they  feel,  they  nevertheless  possess  a  faith  which  is 
true  and  genuine,  though  small  perhaps  as  a  grain  of  mus- 
tard seed.  This  is  no  uncommon  state  of  mind.  Persons  of 
this  description  are  not  so  reluctant  to  believe,  as  they  are 
afraid  of  believing.  They  are  afraid  of  a  blind  credulity 
and  presumption.  They  are  looking  for  a  faith  that  is 
strong  and  enduring,  and  do  not  expect  to  attain  to  it  with- 
out darkness,  and  doubt,  and  difficulty.  They  would  pre- 
scribe their  own  course,  rather  than  cheerfully  walk  in  that 
in  which  God  is  wisely  and  gently  leading  them.  They 
are  believers,  but  their  faith  lacks  the  vividness  and 
strength  which  are  fitted  to  make  strong  impressions  of  it 
on  their  own  minds,  and  to  produce  that  evidence  and  con- 
sciousness of  it  which  they  desire.  The  little  peace  and 
comfort  which  such  persons  enjoy  in  their  love  and  their 
submission,  they  have  actually  found  at  theCross,  and  only 
there ;  and  the  stronger  their  faith  is,  the  more  will  they 
become  partakers  of  the  peace,  and  hope,  and  joy,  which 
the  Gospel  imparts.  Nor  can  they  enjoy  them  except  as 
they  are  thus  conveyed.  And  this  is  one  of  the  reasons 
why  faith  possesses  the  prominence  which  the  Gospel 
gives  to  it.  There  is  no  principle  of  the  Gospel  I  would 
not  sooner  abandon  than  this.     The  first  duty  of  the 


134  FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS. 

sinner  is  his  highest  privilege  :  it  is  to  go  to  the  Cross  and 
be  saved  by  Jesus  Christ.  In  requiring  men  to  become 
believers,  God  requires  them  to  become,  not  merely  holy 
men,  but  pardoned  and  happy  men.  The  gospel  would 
put  them  in  possession  of  this  salvation  ;  it  would  not 
withhold  from  them  the  fullness  of  its  joys;  it  would  shed 
upon  their  spirits  the  fragrance  of  its  blessedness,  and 
cheer  them  with  its  early  blossomings,  as  well  as  the 
richer  fruits  of  its  latter  harvest.  It  would  plant  in  their 
path  all  the  beauties  of  holiness,  and  fill  their  hearts  with 
the  joys  of  God's  salvation.  "  The  kingdom  of  God  is 
not  meat  and  drink,  but  righteousness,  and  peace  and  joy 
in  the  Holy  Ghost." 

There  is  still  another  reason  for  the  high  place  which 
the  Scriptures  assign  to  faith.  It  is  because  faith  is  the 
most  powerful  and  energetic  principle  of  action.  "  The 
chief  end  of  man  is  to  glorify  God  and  enjoy  him  forever." 
This  is  God's  design  in  creating,  preserving  and  blessing 
him,  and  giving  his  Son  to  die  for  his  redemption.  To 
aim  at  this  great  end  is  due  to  God,  due  to  ourselves,  due 
to  the  church  and  the  world.  "  Ye  are  bought  with  a 
price ;  wherefore  glorify  God  in  your  bodies  and  spirits 
which  are  his."  If  it  is  true  that  "without  faith  it  is 
impossible  to  please  God,"  equally  true  is  it  that  faith  is 
the  great  principle  of  action  which  forms  the  Christian 
character  to  well-doing,  and  upon  the  highest  model.  Go 
with  me  to  the  Scriptures  and  see  if  it  be  not  so.  Is  the 
Christian  exposed  to  sin  ;  he  has  no  such  security  as  the 
"  shield  of  faith  whereby  he  may  quench  all  the  fiery 
darts  of  the  devil."  Is  he  prone  to  be  carried  away  by 
the  spirit  of  the  world  ;  "  this  is  the  victory  that  over- 
cometh  the  world,  even  your  faith."  Would  he  abound 
in  works  of  righteousness ;  "  faith  without  works  is  dead, 
being  alone,"  and  "  by  works  is  his  faith  made  perfect." 


FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS.  135 

Would  he  cultivate  purity  of  heart ;  the  way  to  do  is 
"  purifying-  his  heart  by  faith."  Would  he  be  sanctified  ; 
he  is  "  sanctified  by  faith  that  is  in  Christ."  Would  he 
have  fellowship  with  God  ;  he  "  has  access  by  faith  to 
this  grace  wherein  he  stands."  Would  he  rise  above 
the  disheartening  impression  of  his  own  insufficiency, 
and  possess  a  state  of  mind  that  gives  way  to  no  depres- 
sion, and  has  no  place  for  discouragement ;  his  language 
is,  "  I  cRn  do  all  things  through  Christ  who  strengthen- 
eth  me."  He  "  walks  by  faith,  and  not  by  sight."  He 
lives  by  faith,  for  "  it  is  not  he  that  lives,  but  Christ  that 
liveth  in  him."  Would  he  overcome  difficulty  and  con- 
flict; "  if  he  have  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,"  he 
shall  say  to  mountains  of  difficulty,  be  rooted  up  and 
cast  into  the  sea.  The  conscience  is  impressed,  the  heart 
influenced,  the  life  controlled  by  faith.  By  the  power  of 
faith,  the  Christian  becomes  another  man  ;  has  new  ob- 
jects of  pursuit,  and  new  aims  and  ends  controlling  his 
whole  being.  It  is  only  under  the  influence  of  faith  that 
men  live  to  any  good  purpose.  Even  upon  worldly  and 
secular  principles,  faith,  destitute  as  it  is  of  spirituality, 
is  a  most  powerful  principle  of  action.  Men  who,  in  the 
common  affairs  of  life,  wait  for  the  evidence  of  their  senses 
or  their  personal  experience  before  they  act,  have  very 
little  efficiency  of  character.  They  must  often  go  for- 
ward relying  upon  the  testimony  of  their  fellow-men, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  confidence.  If  we  analyze  the  con- 
duct of  mankind,  or  our  own,  we  shall  find  that  even 
this  irreligious  faith  is  the  great  stimulus  to  effort,  and 
that  where  a  man  is  so  cautious  as  to  have  none  of  it,  he 
never  acts  at  all.  How  much  rather,  then,  shall  the 
faith  of  the  Christian,  relying  as  it  does,  with  the  most 
perfect  certitude,  upon  the  veracity  of  God,  and  the  per- 
fect sufficiency  of  the  great  redemption,  give  force  and 


136  FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS. 

energy  to  his  character.  He  lives  by  the  "  faith  of 
things  unseen."  His  faith  has  a  foreseeing  eye,  lighting 
up  all  his  subsequent  coui-se,  throwing  the  interest  and 
excitement  of  the  present  over  the  future,  and  urging  him 
to  live  well  and  live  for  eternity.  His  faith  terminates 
in  great  objects,  and  all  is  deception  to  it  and  a  lie, 
that  does  not  lead  him  to  great  pursuits.  It  is  not 
broken  cisterns  that  he  now  goes  to,  nor  resources  of 
earthly  wisdom  and  strength  to  which  he  repair*.  It  is 
not  a  blind  credulity  that  influences  him,  nor  a  vain  and 
rash  presumption  ;  but  a  satisfied  faith  in  the  promise  of 
God.  He  does  not  throw  away  his  reason  when  he  comes  to 
the  Cross,  but  first  satisfies  his  reason  with  the  truth  and 
reality  of  that  great  sacrifice,  and  then  subjects  it  to  faith 
in  the  divine  testimony.  He  does  not  renounce  present 
interests,  nor  the  world,  any  farther  than  they  counter- 
vail the  claims  of  him  who  was  crucified  ;  and  where  they 
do  this,  faith  outweighs  and  overpowers  them  all.  Other 
things  influence  him,  but  not  as  faith  influences  him. 
Faith  extends  its  influence  over  his  whole  character,  and 
in  yielding  to  this  influence,  he  forms  a  character  which 
nothing  else  can  form.  Read  the  eleventh  chapter  of 
Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  there  mark  the  cha- 
racter and  achievements  of  faith,  expressing  itself,  too, 
only  under  a  dispensation  of  types  and  prefigurations,  and 
"like  some  sickly  plant,  nourished  only  under  the 
shadow  of  better  things  to  come."  Faith  was  the  dis- 
tinctive characteristic  of  the  sacrifice  oflfered  by  Abel,  the 
first  recorded  sacrifice  ever  oflfered  in  this  apostate  world  ; 
"  and  by  it,  he  being  dead,  yet  speaketh."  Faith  was 
the  heaven-descended  attendant  of  Enoch  while  "  he 
walked  with  God,"  and  conducted  him  so  gently,  and 
with  such  invisible  power,  through  the  dark  valley,  that 
he  did  not  see  death.     Faith  directed  Noah  to  the  ark  that 


FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS.  237 

bore  him  above  the  deluge  to  the  shores  of  a  new  world. 
Faith  threw  her  vivid  light  on  the  path  of  Abraham  when 
"  he  went  out,  not  knowing  whither  he  went,"  and 
cheered  the  darkness  of  the  hour  when  he  offered  up  the 
child  of  promise,  "  accounting  that  God  was  able  to  raise 
him  even  from  the  dead."  Faith  gave  reality  to  the 
hopes  of  Joseph,  when  in  his  last  hours  he  "made  men- 
tion of  the  departing  of  the  children  of  Israel"  for  the 
land  given  to  their  fathers.  Faith  elevated  the  views  of 
Moses  above  the  honors  of  the  Egyptian  court,  and  en- 
abled him  to  "  endure  as  seeing  him  who  is  invisible." 
Well  does  the  apostle  say,  "time  would  fail  him"  to 
enumerate  the  achievements  of  faith.  The  high  and  holy 
character  which  it  is  the  design  of  the  Gospel  to  impart, 
cannot  be  possessed  without  giving  faith  preeminence, 
receiving,  as  it  does,  new  impulses  from  every  exercise 
of  its  power,  and  every  view  of  the  Cross. 

Would  you  possess  this  faith,  it  is  to  the  Cross  alone 
that  we  may  direct  you.  Thither  come,  and  as  you 
look  up,  say  with  Job,  "  I  have  heard  of  thee  by  the 
hearing  of  the  ear,  but  now  mine  eye  seeth  thee ;  where- 
fore I  abhor  myself,  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes !" 
Here  there  is  a  view  of  God  that  wins  its  way  to  the  heart. 
Here  the  entrance  of  his  word  giveth  light,  and  you  may 
read  the  record,  "  There  is  now  no  condemnation  to  them 
that  are  in  Christ  Jesus."  Here  you  may  apprehend  the 
Saviour  as  your  surety  and  substitute,  and  may  .  say, 
"  Though  thou  wast  angry  with  me,  thine  anger  is 
turned  away,  and  thou  comfortest  me.  Behold  God  is 
my  salvation,  I  will  trust  and  not  be  afraid  ;  for  the  Lord 
Jehovah  is  my  strength  and  my  song ;  he  also  is  become 
my  salvation." 


138  FAITH    IN    THE    CROSS. 

"  The  moment  a  sinner  believes, 
And  trusts  in  his  crucified  God, 
His  pardon  at  once  he  receives — 
Redemption  in  full,  through  his  blood. 

"  'Tis  faith  that  still  leads  us  along. 
And  lives  under  pressure  and  load ; 
That  makes  us  in  weakness  more  strong. 
And  leads  the  soul  upward  to  God. 

"  It  treads  on  the  world,  and  on  hell, 
It  vanquishes  death  and  despair  j 
And  oh,  let  us  wonder  to  tell. 

It  wrestles  and  conquers  by  prayer. 

"  Permits  a  vile  worm  of  the  dust 

With  God  to  commune  as  a  friend ; 
To  hope  his  forgiveness  as  just, 
And  look  for  his  love  to  the  end. 

"  It  says  to  the  mountains,  'Depart,' 

That  stand  between  God  and  the  soul ; 
It  binds  up  the  broken  in  heart, 
And  makes  wounded  consciences  whole. 

"  Bids  sins  of  a  crimson-like  die 

Be  spotless  as  snow,  and  as  white ; 
And  raises  the  sinner  on  high. 
To  dwell  with  the  angels  of  light." 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE  INQUIRING  SINNER  DIRECTED  TO  THE  CROSS. 

It  is  no  uncommon  occurrence  for  persons  of  every  age, 
and  every  rank,  in  human  society,  to  look  at  the  subject 
of  religion  with  interest  and  solicitude.  This  always  has 
been  the  case,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  where  the  Cross 
of  Christ  is  faithfully  preached,  and  accompanied  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Wherever  the  spirit  of  inquiry 
on  this  subject  exists,  it  implies  that  the  inquirer  is  sen- 
sible of  his  lost  condition,  and  is  seeking  the  way  of  life. 
He  is  no  longer  thoughtless  and  unconcerned  ;  he  has 
done  trifling  with  God  and  making  light  of  sin,  and  is  now 
awake,  alive,  and  in  earnest  for  the  salvation  of  his  soul. 
His  iniquities  are  gone  up  over  his  head  ;  he  has  the 
evidence  within  himself  that  "God  is  angry  with  the 
wicked  every  day,"  and  he  is  ready  to  cry  out  with  one 
"of  old,  "  When  I  suffer  thy  terrors  I  am  distracted." 
It  is  no  feigned  distress  which  he  expresses  ;  "  The  arrows 
of  the  Almighty  stick  fast  within  him,  the  poison 
whereof  drinketh  up  his  spirits."  Although  he  feels  the 
burden  of  his  sins,  and  is  conscious  of  his  obligations  to 
turn  from  them  unto  God ;  yet,  because  he  is  not  a  con- 
verted man,  he  would, notwithstanding,  fain  "break  these 
bands  asunder,  and  cast  away  these  cords  from  him." 
There  is  no  class  of  men  more  restive  under  a  sense  of 
moral  obligation,  than  those  who  are  convinced  of  sin, 


240  THE    INQUIRING    SINNER 

and,  at  the  same  time,  are  reluctant  to  forsake  it — or,  in 
other  words,  than  those  who  are  sensible  of  their  lost  con- 
dition as  sinners,  and  who  "  will  not  come  unto  Christ, 
that  they  might  have  life."  Nothing  deprives  them  of 
the  favor  of  God  but  their  own  voluntary  and  obstinate 
unbelief;  and  this,  though  they  are  conscious  it  can  no 
longer  be  defended,  they  do  not  cease  to  cherish.  This 
is  the  great  subject  of  controversy  between  them  and 
their  Maker.  God  claims  their  return  to  him  through 
Jesus  Christ ;  they  no  longer  question  either  the  equity 
or  the  graciousness  of  the  claim,  and  yet  they  resist  it, 
and  resist  it  with  all  their  hearts.  God  has  decided  that 
their  unhumbled  spirit  shall  bow  to  the  Cross  of  his  Son, 
or  that  they  shall  perish.  They  know  that  they  can 
never  change  his  purpose  ;  yet  they  will  not  bow. 
They  are  more  and  more  sensible  that  "  it  is  a  fearful 
thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God ;"  yet 
they  will  not  cast  themselves  into  the  arms  of  his  bound- 
less, though  sovereign  mercy.  They  endeavor  to  stifle 
these  convictions,  but  the  hand  of  One  stronger  than  the 
strong  man  armed  is  upon  them,  and  they  cannot  escape 
the  convictions  which  they  thus  endeavor  to  suppress. 
God  holds  them  to  the  alternative  of  believing  in  Jesus 
Christj  or  sinking  to  perdition  ;  and  he  holds  their  minds 
awake  to  this,  their  solemn  position.  This  is  the  source 
of  their  distress,  and  in  a  mind  under  deep  and  strong 
conviction  it  is  deep  anxiety.  "  The  spirit  of  a  man  may 
sustain  his  infirmity,  but  a  wounded  spirit  who  can 
bear?"  To  be  sensible  that  they  are  in  the  hands  of 
God,  and  yet  to  be  unwilling  to  be  in  his  hands — to  be 
unwilling  to  be  in  his  hands,  and  yet  see  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  break  away  from  his  government — to  murmur 
and  complain  at  the  terms  of  salvation,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  be  convinced  that  there  is  no  ground  for  com- 


DIRECTED    TO    THE    CROSS.  •         J4J 

plaint  and  murmuring — is  a  state  of  mind  like  the  tem- 
pestuous ocean,  when  its  waters  "  cast  up  mire  and  dirt." 

It  is  not  unnatural  that  one  in  such  a  state  should  be 
moved  to  effort.  Availing-  or  unavailing-,  he  is  moved 
to  effort ;  nor  is  it  possible  that  he  should  be  at  rest,  under 
this  load  of  conscious  guilt.  Conscience  cannot  resist  the 
impression  that  there  is  some  duty  to  be  performed,  in 
the  neglect  of  which  he  must  take  up  his  abode  with  all 
the  incorrigible  enemies  of  God,  and  lie  down  in  sorrow. 
He  seeks  some  competent  relief,  and  inquires  if  there  is 
no  hope  for  such  a  sinner  as  he.  His  language  is  intel- 
ligible and  definite:  "What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?^' 
He  wishes  to  know  if  there  is  any  path  in  which  he  may 
walk,  that  will  lead  to  eternal  life. 

Men  are  not  often  placed  in  circumstances  of  more 
weighty  responsibility,  than  when  called  to  give  directions 
to  those  who  are  thus  earnestly  seeking  the  salvation  of 
their  souls.  I  need  not  say,  that  they  are  strongly 
tempted,  at  such  seasons,  to  comfort  those  who  are  dead 
in  sin.  But  a  little  reflection  will  convince  us  that  no 
direction  should  be  given  to  the  inquiring  sinner,  that 
affords  the  least  relief  to  his  conscience  in  the  continued 
rejection  of  Jesus  Christ.  If  he  is  ignorant,  he  should 
be  instructed  ;  but  when  once  the  method  of  salvation  is 
clearly  set  before  him,  he  may  not  be  comforted  in  the 
neglect  of  it.  It  is  a  mistaken  view  of  the  Cross  that  it 
speaks  peace  to  the  convinced,  but  unbelieving  sinner. 
We  ought  not  to  wish  to  speak  peace  to  him,  but,  while 
we  affectionately  set  before  him  the  fullness  and  all-suflS- 
ciency  of  Christ,  and  his  unutterable  tenderness  and  love, 
to  render  his  condition  more  distressing,  so  long  as  he 
stays  away  from  Christ.  The  history  of  experimental 
religion,  in  all  ages,  shows  nothing  more  clearly,  than 
that  to  tell  convinced  sinners  the  whole  truth  of  God,  is 


142  THE    INQUIRING    SINNER 

the  most  powerful  means  of  their  conversion.  It  is  an 
unspeakable  pleasure  to  be  able  to  say  to  men  who  are 
wearying  themselves  to  find  their  way  to  heaven,  and 
who,  like  the  Pharisees  of  old,  fast  and  pray,  and  are 
going  about  to  establish  a  righteousness  of  their  own, 
while  they  refuse  to  subject  themselves  to  the  righteous- 
ness of  God  :  There  is  a  "  righteousness  which  is  of 
faith,  and  not  by  the  deeds  of  law."  You  are  only 
making  lies  your  refuge,  and  cleaving  to  that  which  God 
abhors,  until,  as  prisoners  of  hope,  you  flee  to  this  strong- 
hold. Yet,  strange  to  say,  the  question  has  been  gravely 
debated,  Whether  this  is  the  true  and  only  course  to 
be  adopted  with  those  who  are  thus  anxious  for  their 
salvation  1  Let  us  for  a  moment  look  at  this  practical 
and  important  question,  and  while  we  consider  it,  let  us 
take  our  position  as  near  as  we  can  to  the  Cross  of  Christ, 
and  hear  what  he  says  to  men  in  this  anxious  state  of 
mind. 

I  am  a  preacher  of  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified,  and 
one  of  my  charge  comes  to  me  with  the  question,  "  What 
shall  I  do  to  be  saved  ?"  You  are  a  parent,  and  your 
anxious  child  comes  to  you  with  this  affecting  inquiry. 
You  are  a  teacher  in  the  Sabbath  School,  and  that  Spirit 
that  so  often  impresses  the  minds  of  the  young,  has  visited 
your  interesting  cliarge,  and  they  flock  in  numbers  to  you 
to  inquire,  "  What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  ?"  Now  what 
is  the  answer  which  the  Cross  of  Christ  gives  to  this 
inquiry  1  We  know  the  answer  which  Paganism  would 
give  :  it  would  point  the  inquirer  to  the  Ganges,  or  the 
Car  of  Juggernaut,  and  tell  him,  That  is  the  way  to 
heaven.  We  know  the  answer  which  Rome  would  give  : 
it  would  tell  him  to  repeat  his  prayers  to  the  Virgin,  to 
bow  before  the  image  of  some  canonized  saint,  to  go  to 
mass,  and  make  liberal  benefactions  to  the  church.     But 


DIRECTED    TO    THE    CROSS.  143 

what  is  the  answer  which  the  Cross  gives  to  his  inquiry  1 
It  will  be  said,  perhaps,  that  as  the  guardian  of  sound 
morality,  the  Cross  instructs  such  a  man  to  reform  his 
life,  and  break  off  his  habits  of  outward  sin.  If  he  has 
been  vicious,  he  must  become  moral  and  virtuous  ;  if  he 
has  been  profane,  he  must  become  devout ;  if  he  has 
been  careless,  he  must  become  solemn  and  serious.  But 
the  fact  is,  he  himself  is  in  advance  of  all  such  counsel, 
and  has  long  been  in  the  rigid  practice  of  every  moral 
virtue.  But  this  does  not  satisfy  him.  It  does  not  quiet 
his  fears,  nor  silence  the  tTiunders  of  divine  vengeance, 
nor  relieve  him  of  his  burden,  nor  fill  his  heart  with 
peace.  His  morality  is  rotten  at  the  core  ;  and  if  it  were 
ever  so  pure,  could  not  relieve  a  conscience  truly  awake 
to  a  sense  of  sin.  Following  such  counsel,  the  Ethio- 
pean  might  seem  to  have  changed  his  skin,  and  the 
leopard  his  spots  ;  but  the  change  would  not  be  deep  and 
thorough,  and  the  subject  of  it  would  turn  from  his  evil 
courses  only  from  a  slavish  fear  of  God's  displeasure. 

It  may  perhaps  be  said,  that  the  Cross  urges  upon 
him  a  more  rigid  religious  character,  and  tells  him,  if 
he  has  not  been  baptized,  to  present  himself  for  the  ordi- 
nance of  baptism ;  if  he  has  cast  off  fear  and  restrained 
prayer,  to  devote  himself  to  the  duties  of  the  closet ;  if  he 
has  neglected  the  Scriptures  and  the  house  of  God,  to  be 
more  punctual  in  his  observance  of  the  duties  of  the 
Lord's  Day,  and  more  familiar  with  the  Scriptures ;  if  he 
has  mingled  with  the  gay  world,  to  withdraw  himself 
from  its  unhallowed  dissipations  and  joys ;  if  he  has  neg- 
lected the  table  of  the  Lord,  to  commemorate  the  sacri- 
fice of  his  Divine  Master  at  the  Holy  Supper.  It  is  true 
that  the  Cross  urges  upon  him  all  these  duties  ;  but  does 
it  assure  such  a  man,  that  in  these  outward  services  he 
will  find  peace  1    We  may  be  assured  the  Cross  does  not 


144  THE    INQUIRING    SINNER, 

thus  deny  itself.  There  is  not  a  little  of  this  sort  of  re- 
ligion in  the  world,  flowing  from  the  impression  that  it 
atones  for  past  transgressions,  and  merits  heaven,  because 
it  is  too  good  to  be  sent  to  hell.  But  without  faith  in  the 
Saviour,  all  this  is  destitute  of  every  element  of  holiness, 
and  partakes  of  the  character  of  the  unsubdued  and  un- 
regenerated  heart.  These  duties  constitute  the  form  of 
godliness  ;  they  have  their  place  and  importance,  and 
may  well  have  praise  of  men.  But  those  who  never  go 
beyond  these  things,  will  be  disappointed  when  they 
enter  into  eternity.  The  admonition  of  the  crucified  one 
is,  "  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  except  your  righteousness 
exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  ye 
shall  in  no  case  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
The  anxious  sinner  is  apt  to  be  beguiled  by  such  mis- 
taken and  faithless  counsels,  and  instead  of  fleeing  to  the 
stronghold,  while  a  prisoner  of  hope,  to  betale  him- 
self to  these  refuges  of  lies.  But  just  so  certainly  as  he 
rests  in  these  mere  outward  observances,  he  stops  short 
of  the  Cross,  and  his  "  hope  is  as  the  spider's  web." 

What  then  is  the  language  of  the  Cross  to  the  convinced 
and  distressed  sinner  ?  Let  us  turn  to  the  Bible  and  see. 
When  the  anxious  and  distressed  jailer  of  Phillippi  in- 
quired of  Paul  and  Silas,  "  Sirs,  what  must  I  do  to  be 
saved?"  they  gave  him  this  short  and  plain  answer :  "  Be- 
lieve ill  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved.^^ 
When  the  Saviour  addressed  men  in  this  state  of  mind, 
his  language  was,  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and 
are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  When  the 
Jews  said  unto  him,  "  What  shall  we  do  that  Ave  might 
work  the  works  of  God  ?  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto 
them,  This  is  the  work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  on  Him 
w^hom  he  hath  sent."  Paul  instructs  the  Church  of 
Rome,  that  "  the  righteousness  of  God,  without  the  law, 


DIRECTED    TO    THE    CROSS.  j^g 

is  manifested,  even  the  righteousness  of  God  which  is  hy 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ ,  unto  all,  and  upon  all  them  that 
believe.''^  To  the  same  persons  he  writes  :  "  The  right- 
eousness which  is  of  faith  speaketh  on  this  wise.  Say  not 
in  thy  heart,  who  shall  ascend  into  heaven,  that  is  to  bring 
Christ  down  from  above  :  or,  who  shall  descend  into  the 
deep,  that  is  to  bring  up  Christ  again  from  the  dead. 
But  what  saith  it  1  The  word  is  nigh  thee,  even  in  thy 
mouth  and  in  thy  heart ;  that  is  the  word  of  faith  which 
we  preach ;  that  if  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  believe  in  thy  heart  that  God  hath  raised 
him  from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved.^^  There  is  the 
most  perfect  simplicity  in  these  instructions,  because  they 
disclose  the  method  of  salvation  by  the  Cross.  The  Gos- 
pel is  no  complex  and  dark  system  ;  nor  is  it  wrapt  up  in 
so  much  mysticism,  that  the  anxious  inquirer  need  doubt 
as  to  the  great  duty  which  it  requires.  It  is  not  a  system 
of  outward  observances,  nor  anything  in  which  a  self- 
righteous  spirit  may  boast.  It  is  simply  a  spiritual  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ,  in  distinction  from  everything  else,  and 
in  opposition  to  that  righteousness  which  is  by  the  deeds 
of  the  law.  There  is  but  this  one  way,  by  which  the 
burdened  sinner  can  find  relief,  and  be  restored  to  the 
favor  of  God.     It  is  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  speak  now  of  the  nature  of  sav- 
ing faith,  after  what  has  been  said  in  a  previous  chapter. 
It  is  not  the  faith  of  devils,  who  believe  and  tremble.  It 
is  not  the  faith  of  the  imagination,  whereby  men  some- 
times work  themselves  up  to  the  persuasion  that  they 
belong  to  God's  chosen  ones,  and  that  is  cherished  by 
dreams  and  visions,  and  every  sort  of  extravagance  and 
enthusiasm.  It  is  the  sober,  intelligent,  hearty  "receiv- 
ing and  resting  upon  Jesus  Christ  alone,  for  salvation,  as 
he  is  offered  in  the  Gospel."  It  is  to  love  Jesus  Christ 
7 


146  THE    INQUIRING    SINNER 

and  trust  in  him.  And  this  is  what  the  Cross  tells  tlie 
inquiring  sinner  to  do.  This  is  the  answer  which  it 
gives  to  this  great  question.  It  is  as  though  he  who 
hung  upon  it  said  to  the  inquirer,  "  I  must  have  your 
cheerful  consent  to  the  method  of  salvation  which  I  have 
accomplished.  I  require  the  entire  surrender  of  your 
immortal  spirit,  polluted  and  condemned  as  it  is,  into  my 
hands,  for  all  that  it  needs.  No  longer  go  about  to 
establish  a  righteousness  of  your  own  by  the  deeds  of  the 
law ;  but  rather  feel  that  you  have  no  righteousness,  and 
receive  my  salvation,  as  it  is  testified  to  a  dying  world. 
This  do,  and  thou  shalt  live.  Thou  shalt  have  an  inter- 
est in  that  great  atonement  which  was  made  for  all  thy 
sins ;  thou  shalt  be  delivered  from  the  curse  of  the  law 
by  that  blood,  which  not  only  answers  every  charge,  and 
covers  every  sin,  but  effectually  pleads  on  the  behalf  of 
those  who  from  the  heart  renounce  all  other  helpers, 
and  confide  in  me  as  their  Saviour !" 

Such  is  the  counsel  of  the  Cross  to  the  inquiring  sinner. 
He  has,  therefore,  something  to  do  in  order  to  be  saved ; 
and  that  is,  to  believe  in  .Tesus  Christ.  And  until  he  does 
this,  he  does  nothing  that  has  the  least  influence  in 
changing  his  relations  to  the  penalty  of  the  divine  law. 
No  matter  what  regard  he  professes  to  have  for  God,  and 
for  religious  services  ;  they  are  all  polluted  and  avail 
nothing,  until  he  believes  on  him  whom  he  has  sent.  If 
he  professes  a  readiness  to  do  the  will  of  God,  here  is  a 
plain  command  that  tests  his  readiness  ;  and  if  he  is  un- 
willing to  obey  him  in  this  great  particular,  this  turning 
point  of  his  salvation,  he  is  unwilling  to  obey  him  in 
anything.  Very  little  is  to  be  thought  of  that  man's 
willingness  to  do  his  duty,  and  to  do  right,  who  demurs 
and  excuses  himself  from  going,  as  a  lost  sinner,  to  Jesus 
Christ  for  salvation.     Christ  comes  with  God's  authority, 


DIRECTED    TO    THE    CROSS.  ■,.« 

with  God's  Spirit,  with  all  the  attestations  that  heaven 
and  earth  can  give ;  and  he  comes  full  of  truth  and 
grace,  with  the  glory  of  God  beaming  in  his  life  and  in 
his  death ;  and  the  first  thing  the  anxious  sinner  has  to 
do  is  to  give  him  his  confidence.  Here  he  begins  his 
obedience,  and  here  begins  his  hope.  He  is  anxious  for 
the  salvation  of  his  soul,  and  professes  to  be  willing-  to 
subject  himself  to  any  sacrifices— to  pray,  to  read,  to  at- 
tend upon  all  the  opportunities  of  religious  instruction ; 
but  in  this  one  thing  he  hesitates,  he  defers,  perhaps  he 
complains.  He  cannot  cast  himself  down  before  the 
Cross,  and  place  confidence  in  the  atoning  blood  shed  on 
Calvary.  He  thinks  to  make  himself  better,  and  to  be- 
come more  worthy  of  God's  approbation,  before  he  comes 
to  Christ ;  whereas,  he  is  only  becoming  worse,  and  the 
more  worthy  of  God's  everlasting  displeasure,  the  longer 
he  stays  away. 

^  Let  me  not  be  misunderstood,  when  I  say  that  the  con- 
vinced sinner  has  something  to  do  before  he  can  find 
acceptance  with  God.  As  a  work  of  the  law,  he  has 
nothing  to  do ;  and  as  a  personal  righteousness  of  his 
own,  that  shall  commend  him  to  God,  he  has  nothing  to 
do.  But  he  has  to  obey  this  comprehensive  precept, 
Believe  in  the  So7i  of  God.  This  surely  is  something.  It 
IS  not,  indeed,  an  outward  observance ;  it  is  an  act  of  the 
heart,  and  the  only  act  by  which  the  alienated  heart 
returns  to  God,  and  in  that  only  way  which  God  has  ap- 
pointed. Faith  in  Christ,  though  not  a  legal  righteous- 
ness, is  something  that  comes  in  the  place  of  a  legal 
righteousness,  and  justifies  by  virtue  of  that  righteousness 
which  it  receives,  and  which  is  its  object.  Nor  is  it  less 
the  act  and  exercise  of  the  sinner  because  "  it  is  the  gift 
of  God."  All  right  and  holy  acts  of  the  heart  are  the 
gift  of  God  J  but  they  are  not  less  duties  and  acts  on  that 


148  THE    INQUIRING    SINNER 

account.  Faith  is  an  act  to  which  the  sinner  is  moved 
and  influenced  by  the  Holy  Spirit ;  but  it  is  not,  for  this 
reason,  less  an  act,  or  less  a  reasonable  service.  It  is  he 
himself  who  believes,  though  God  enables  him  to  believe. 
His  faith  is  his  own,  though  God  gives  it.  The  language 
of  the  Cross  to  the  inquiring  sinner,  therefore,  is,  "Re- 
pent and  believe  the  Gospel."  It  calls  upon  him  to 
trust  in  this  Mighty  Saviour  ;  to  believe  that  he  is  just, 
while  he  justifies  ;  to  be  satisfied  that  he  is  able  to  save 
to  the  uttermost,  all  that  come  unto  God  by  Jesus  Christ ; 
and,  in  the  strength  and  preciousness  of  this  persuasion, 
to  commit  his  guilty  soul  to  him,  to  be  presented  fault- 
less before  the  throne.  What  else  shall  he  do  1  where 
else  shall  he  go  1  to  whom  else  shall  he  look  ?  He  looks 
within  himself,  and  finds  no  helper;  he  looks  abroad 
upon  his  fellow  creatures,  and  "  miserable  comforters  are 
they  all."  It  costs  him  many  a  painful  struggle,  and 
many  a  conflict  with  flesh  and  blood,  and  many  an  aban- 
doned pretension  to  self-righteousness,  to  feel  and  confess 
his  inability  to  save  himself,  to  be  conscious  that  he  has 
no  claims,  and,  letting  go  every  other  hold,  to  throw 
himself  upon  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  his  salvation. 
But  this  he  must  do  ;  and  not  until  he  does  this,  does  he 
give  God  the  throne,  and  take  his  own  proper  place  in 
the  dust. 

It  is  to  this  lowly  and  confiding  spirit,  therefore,  that 
the  Gospel  directs  the  man  who  inquires,  "  What  must  I 
do  to  be  saved  ?"  It  would  fain  attract  him  to  the  foot- 
stool of  mercy,  and  draw  him  by  its  cords  of  love  to  him 
who  was  "  lifted  up  from  the  earth."  The  Cross  has  no 
counsels  to  give  him  that  may  be  safer,  or  more  easily 
followed  ;  it  has  no  other  counsels  at  all.  And  with  this 
language  of  the  Cross,  the  whole  scope  and  spirit  of  the 
Bible  concur,  uniformly  and  everywhere  urging,  if  not 


DIRECTED    TO    THE    CROSS.  J49 

the  particular  act  of  believing-,  the  spirit  that  is  necessa- 
rily expressive  of  the  faith  of  the  Gospel.  ^'^ Repent  ye, 
for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand  ;" — "  Repe^it  and 
believe  the  Gospel ;" — "  He  that  helieveth  shall  be  saved, 
and  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned;" — "  Repent 
and  be  baptized  every  one  of  you,  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ,  for  the  remission  of  sins  ; ' ' — ' '  Repeiit  ye  therefore, 
and  be  converted,  that  your  sins  may  be  blotted  out ;" — 
*' Testifying  to  the  Jews,  and  also  to  the  Greeks,  repentance 
toward  God  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Such 
is  the  uniform  language  of  the  Bible.  The  sacred  writers 
never  call  on  men  to  try  to  believe  in  Christ,  but  to  believe 
in  him.  They  never  counsel  them  to  resolve  to  believe, 
but  to  believe.  No  matter  to  whom  they  address  them- 
selves, whether  to  the  learned  or  the  unlearned,  or  to 
men  in  pagan,  Jewish,  or  Christian  lands,  their  great 
aim,  and  that  without  ambiguity,  is  to  urge  the  duty, 
and  that  without  delay,  of  confiding  in  the  efficacy  of  the 
Cross.  And  -who  does  not  see  that  such  counsels  are 
every  way  reasonable,  and  commend  themselves  to  the 
conscience  of  the  anxious  inquirer  ? 

Faith  in  the  Cross  is  right  in  itself,  and  the  duty  which 
every  man  ought  to  perform  w^ho  is  acquainted  with  the 
method  of  salvation  which  it  reveals.  Let  the  method 
of  redemption  by  the  Cross  of  Christ  be  intelligibly  ex- 
hibited to  the  mind  of  a  pagan ;  let  the  nature  of  faith 
be  properly  defined,  and  clearly  described  ;  and  his  con- 
science will  feel  the  obligation  of  believing,  and  of  falling 
in  with  that  redemption.  No  one  feels  more  deeply  that 
he  is  without  excuse  for  not  believing,  than  the  awakened 
and  convinced  sinner.  He  knows  that  it  is  right  for  him 
to  perform  this  great  duty.  To  tell  him  so — to  tell  him 
so  solemnly  and  affectionately,  and  to  give  him  no  relief 
from  performing  it,  and  no  peace  and  comfort  until  it  is 


150  THE    INQUIRING    SINNER 

performed,  makes  him  feel  just  as  the  Spirit  of  God  makes 
him  feel.  The  work  in  which  the  Spirit  of  God  is  en- 
gaged with  him,  is  to  produce  and  sustain  the  impression 
in  his  mind,  that  his  first  duty  is  to  believe  in  Jesus  ;  and 
to  tell  him  anything  else,  is  to  oppose  the  merciful  ope- 
rations of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  his  mind.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  world,  which  is  half  so  reasonable  for  the  anxious 
sinner  to  do,  as  to  dismiss  his  mad  idolatry  of  self,  and 
come  and  sit  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  clothed  and  in  his  right 
mind.  You  may  direct  him  to  something  else  besides  the 
Cross,  but  in  doing  so,  you  only  prolong  and  implicitly 
justify  his  unbelief.  You  take  part  with  him  against 
the  imperative  claims  of  his  Saviour  ;  and  if  he  loses 
his  conviction,  his  blood  may  be  required  at  your  hands. 
Let  it  not  be  forgotten,  that  such  a  man  is  all  the  while 
growing  worse  or  better.  That  he  is  not  growing  better 
is  apparent  from  the  fact  that  he  stays  away  from  Christ. 
His  external  conduct  may  be  better,  but  his  heart  is  con- 
stantly growing  worse  ;  and  if  you  direct  him  to  any- 
thing short  of  Christ,  what  do  you  implicitly  do,  but  tell 
him  he  need  not  now  go  to  him  ?  You  do  not  mean  to  tell 
him  this  ;  but  is  not  this  the  tendency  and  impression  of 
your  directions,  and  are  they  not  at  variance  with  the 
claims  of  the  Cross  ?  The  effect  upon  his  mind  is  the 
same  as  though  you  had  relieved  him  from  the  present 
obligation  of  believing  the  Gospel,  and  had  more  than 
intimated  that  it  is  a  duty  which  God  does  not  require 
that  he  should  perform.  You  make  him  feel  as 
though  he  were  doing  very  well  in  rejecting  the  testi- 
mony which  God  has  given  concerning  his  Son. 

More  than  this  :  when  the  Cross  directs  the  anxious 
sinner  to  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus ^  it  meets  the  exigencies 
of  his  awakened  mind.  It  is  a  "word  in  season  to  him 
that  is  weary."     It  satisfies  his  understanding ;  it  satisfies 


DIRECTED    TO    THE    CROSS.  151 

his  conscience  ;  it  leaves  him  without  excuse  ;  it  allures 
him  to  the  mercy-seat,  there  to  "  smite  upon  his  breast, 
and  say,  God  be  merciful  to  me,  a  sinner  !"  He  is 
oppressed  with  the  weight  of  his  sins,  and  asks  you  what 
he  shall  do.  Does  not  the  affecting  inquiry  deserve  a 
satisfactory  reply  1  You  hesitate  to  say  to  him,  that  his 
first  business  and  paramount  duty,  and  the  only  safe 
course  for  him  in  time  and  eternity,  is  to  repent  and 
believe  the  Gospel ;  and  therefore  you  tell  him  to  seek 
and  to  strive,  and  to  do  as  well  as  he  can,  without  be- 
lieving. Just  as  well  might  the  man  who  was  bitten  by 
the  fiery  serpents  in  the  wilderness,  have  looked  down 
upon  his  wounds,  and  endeavored  to  find  healing  by 
plastering  his  mortal  sores,  without  looking  to  the  brazen 
serpent  which  Moses  lifted  up.  If  the  sinner's  con- 
science is  fully  awake,  this  will  not  satisfy  him.  He  has 
done  all  this,  and  persevered  in  it  to  weariness,  and  still 
finds  no  comfort,  but  is  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.  He 
does  not  ask  you  what  he  shall  do  to  become  acquainted 
with  his  responsibility,  or  what  he  shall  do  to  cherish  his 
convictions.  He  wants  to  know  what  he  shall  do  to  be 
saved.  Persons  in  the  last  stages  of  conviction  are  more 
than  ever,  and  more  than  all  others,  convinced  of  the 
entire  sinfulness  of  all  their  religious  performances,  and 
their  utter  inefficiency  to  give  them  peace  of  mind.  They 
feel  that  in  all  the  means  of  grace  they  are  using,  they 
make  no  approximation  to  the  salvation  they  need  ;  and 
it  has  become  a  very  grave  question  with  them,  whether 
they  are  not  the  more  guilty  by  all  the  light  they  enjoy, 
and  whether  their  convictions  themselves  will  not  prove 
a  savor  of  death  unto  death.  There  is  wisdom  and 
appropriateness,  therefore,  in  the  instructions  of  the  Cross. 
You  may  tell  such  a  man  that  his  fears  are  groundless, 
but  he  does  not  believe  you.     You  may  tell  him  to  read 


152  THE    INQUIRING    SINNER 

the  Scriptures  and  to  pray  often.  But  he  replies,  "  I  have 
done  so — for  weeks  and  months  I  have  done  so  ;  but  God 
is  a  wiklerness  to  me,  and  all  his  ordinances  are  a  desert 
where  no  water  is.  I  find  no  relief  in  them  all,  but  am 
still  a  guilty,  miserable  sinner ;  my  cup  is  full,  and 
nothing  but  forbearing  mercy  keeps  me  from  the  pit." 

Now  the  Cross  enters  into  the  feelings  of  such  a  man, 
and  meets  the  exigencies  of  his  condition.  There,  amid 
convulsions  that  shook  the  earth,  and  darkness  that  put 
out  the  sun,  on  that  Cross  the  prayer  was  uttered, 
*'  Father  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do!" 
It  foresaw  the  gall  of  bitterness  which  the  anxious  would 
drink,  and  the  bonds  of  iniquity  under  which  the  con- 
vinced would  groan  ;  and  he  who  hung  upon  it  drank 
that  bitter  cup,  and  felt  those  galling  chains.  It  was 
planted  in  the  way  where  wicked  men  were  traveling, 
only  to  make  their  bed  in  hell,  and  on  purpose  to  stop 
them  in  their  mad  career.  Under  the  false  glare  of 
ill-advised  counsels  and  a  self-righteous  heart,  the  anx- 
ious sinner  has  missed  it,  and  gone  beyond  this  city  of 
refuge.  Mercy  calls  to  him  to  turn  before  he  is  overtaken 
by  the  Avenger  of  blood.  It  admonishes  him  that  he  is 
going  away  from  the  only  hiding-place,  and  that  he  may 
not  lose  an  hour  before  he  comes  back  to  be  reconciled  to 
the  Avenger  through  atoning  blood.  The  Cross  itself, 
with  its  free  and  full  salvation,  not  more  meets  his 
exigencies  as  a  perishing  sinner,  than  the  claims  of 
the  Cross  on  his  submission,  his  love,  his  confidence, 
meet  the  exigencies  of  his  present  state  of  mind.  They 
urge  upon  him  to  repent  and  believe  the  Gospel,  and  he 
feels  the  urgency  of  the  claim.  They  plead  with  him, 
"Behold,  now  is  the  accepted  time;  behold,  now  is  the 
day  of  salvation;"  now,  while  the  spirit  strives,  while 
conscience  is  sensitive,  and  "all  things  are  ready;"  and 


DIRECTED    TO    THE    CROSS.  153 

he  feels  the  pressure  of  their  demands,  and  lays  his  hand 
upon  his  mouth.  They  speak  no  peace  to  him  so  long 
as  he  stays  away  from  Christ ;  but  all  peace,  all  hope, 
all  light,  and  comfort,  and  joy,  in  believing.  Nothing 
meets  the  exigencies  of  such  a  state  of  mind,  but  the 
simple,  unabated,  unrelaxed  direction  of  the  Cross,  to 
believe  on  him  who  was  crucified.  This  meets  it,  and  no 
sooner  does  it  receive  a  fitting  response  from  the  sinner's 
heart  than  he  begins  his  everlasting  song. 

It  is  not,  on  the  one  hand,  the  design  of  the  Cross  to 
bring  down  the  method  of  salvation  to  the  level  of  tlie 
sinner's  corrupt  inclinations  ;  nor,  on  the  other,  to  mag- 
nify the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  his  being  saved.  It  is 
no  system  of  penances  and  pilgrimages,  of  ablutions  and 
immolations ;  nor,  which  is  just  as  difficult,  is  it  a 
system  of  self-righteousness.  It  is  a  system  of  faith,  re- 
quiring simply  that  the  sinner  should  abandon  every 
other  refuge,  and  hope,  and  effort,  and,  from  tlie  heart, 
receive  the  testimony,  that  "  God  has  given  us  eternal 
life,"  and  that  ''  this  life  is  in  his  Son."  It  makes  the 
way  of  salvation  plain.  It  does  not  trifle  with  the  sins 
and  miseries  of  men  by  directing  them  to  an  unin- 
telligible method  of  inercy.  Men  may  view  this  method 
of  mercy  through  a  perverted  medium ;  they  may  ob- 
scure it  by  their  unbelief;  they  may  throw  obstacles  in 
the  path,  even  by  their  own  honest  efforts  to  make  them- 
selves fit  to  become  its  objects  ;  but  they  are  obstacles  of 
their  own  creating.  Mulitudes  become  discouraged  in 
seeking  eternal  life,  and  finally  perish,  by  supposing  it 
a  more  difficult  thing  to  be  saved  than  it  actually  is. 
With  a  certain  class  of  minds,  this  is  one  of  the  great 
artifices  of  the  subtle  adversary.  God  gives  with  free- 
ness  ;  he  gives  with  strange  liberality ;  he  loves  to  give 
eternal  life  to  all  who  accept  his  Son.  "  Hearken  unto 
7* 


154  THE    INQUIRING    SINNER 

me,"  says  he,  "  ye  that  are  stouthearted  and  far  from 
righteousness;  behold,  I  bring  near  my  righteousness, 
and  my  salvation  shall  not  tarry!"  And  salvation  is 
brought  near.  Here  at  the  foot  of  Calvary,  and  by  all 
the  love  and  mercy  of  the  Cross,  the  God  of  heaven  en- 
treats you  to  "  look  and  live."  He  does  not  require 
you  to  become  your  own  Saviour,  but  rather  to  cease 
from  this  vain  and  disheartening  effort,  and  be  saved  by 
him  who  bled  for  your  redemption. 

That  which  renders  the  condition  of  the  awakened 
and  anxious  so  critical  a  condition,  is,  that  they  reject  a 
salvation  which  is  clearly  revealed  to  their  own  minds. 
"  To  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good,  and  doeth  it  not,  to 
him  it  is  sin."  Those  who  see  and  understand  the  way 
of  salvation  by  Christ,  have  no  excuse  for  rejecting  it — 
no,  not  for  an  hour.  The  difficulty  of  accepting  it  is  not 
diminished  by  delay.  If  there  were  any  course  of  pre- 
requisite labor  that  would  render  the  duty  of  accepting  it 
more  easy,  more  certain,  or  more  safe,  there  would  be 
some  semblance  of  reason  for  delay.  But  it  is  both  easier 
and  safer  to  accept  it  the  first  moment  it  is  understood, 
than  it  ever  will  be  afterwards.  There  is  more  reason, 
more  conscience,  more  peace  of  mind,  more  of  God  and 
heaven  in  accepting,  than  in  rejecting  it.  So  far  from 
anything  being  gained  by  delay,  the  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  believing  always  gain  strength  and  obduracy  by 
procrastination.  The  Cross  testifies  to  men  of  every  age, 
every  character,  every  condition,  undelayed  repentance 
toward  God  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  His 
language  to  them  is.  Fallen,  as  you  are  by  your  in- 
iquity, "  the  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that 
which  was  lost."  The  voice  of  this  Son  of  Man  to  them 
is,  "  Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock  ;  if  any  man 
hear  my  voice  and  open  the  door,  I  will  come  in  to  him 


DIRECTED    TO    THE    CROSS.  155 

and  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  me."  When  w^ill  the 
anxious  inquirer  open  his  heart  to  this  condescending  and 
heavenly  guest  ?  When  will  he  enjoy  this  rich,  this 
blood-bought  banquet  ?  When,  if  not  now  ?  When  will 
he  turn  his  back  upon  the  wilderness,  where  he  is 
perishing  with  hunger,  and  go  to  his  Father's  house, 
where  there  is  bread  enough  and  to  spare,  if  not  now  ? 
When,  if  not  now,  will  he  look  on  him  w^hom  he  has 
pierced,  and  mourn,  and  go,  with  a  broken,  bleeding 
heart,  to  the  Cross  ?  I  am  warranted  in  bringing  this  in- 
quiry distinctly  before  the  mind  of  every  awakened 
sinner  who  reads  these  pages ;  and  I  ask  him,  if  he  is 
unprepared  for  this  reasonable  duty  now — a  duty  which 
God  the  Spirit  is  now  urging  on  his  conscience  with  so 
much  tenderness  and  solemnity,  that  the  only  alternative 
is  life  or  death — when  he  will  perform  it  1  When '?  If 
he  hesitates,  the  reason  for  this  hesitation,  and  the  only 
reason,  is,  that  if  he  is  not  willing  to  perform  it  now,  he 
is  not  now  wiUing  to  perform  it  at  all.  The  Cross  ad- 
dresses such  a  man  with  great  and  peculiar  directness. 
He  sees  that  he  is  lost — lost  to  himself,  lost  to  God,  lost 
to  heaven,  irrecoverably  and  eternally  lost,  if  he  re- 
mains an  unbeliever  in  Jesus.  And  the  language  of  the 
Cross  to  him  is  full  of  tenderness.  He  who  there  hung 
and  expired,  "  the  just  for  the  unjust,"  that  he  might 
bring  him  unto  God,  says  to  the  agitated  and  trembling, 
the  distressed  and  desponding  inquirer,  "  It  was  for  thee 
I  died  ;  I  bore  thee  on  this  heart  of  love,  when  I  gave  up 
the  ghost!"  Oh,  then,  thou  fearful,  go  and  cast  this 
burden  at  the  foot  of  his  Cross.  Be  no  longer  faithless, 
but  believing.  This  do  and  thou  shalt  live.  The  God 
of  grace,  for  his  name's  sake,  shall  blot  your  iniquities 
as  a  cloud,  and  your  transgressions  as  a  thick  cloud. 
The  God   of  faithfulness   shall  carry   on  the  work  he 


156  THE    INQUIRING    SINNER,    &c. 

has  begun,  and  perfect  it  to  the  day  of  his  coming. 
He  shall  guide  you  by  his  counsel,  and  keep  you  as 
the  apple  of  his  eye.  He  shall  go  with  you  up  to 
the  chamber  of  death,  and  when  flesh  and  heart  shall 
fail,  shall  be  the  strength  of  your  heart  and  your  portion 
forever.  In  that  hour  of  darkness  and  conflict,  he  will 
still  direct  your  fading  eye  to  his  Cross,  where  the  dark- 
ness, the  sorrow  and  the  defeat  were  his,  that  the  light, 
the  jo}"  and  the  victory  might  be  yours.  And  when  you 
look  down  into  the  grave,  it  shall  no  longer  be  with  sad- 
ness, but  with  the  confidence  that  your  flesh  sliall  rest 
in  hope,  and  that  he  will  raise  you  incorruptible  and  im- 
mortal. 

And  now,  if  in  the  unbelief  of  your  own  minds,  you 
still  press  the  question,  "What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved?" 
I  have  no  other  answer  to  give,  than  "  Believe  in.  the 
Lord  Jesus."  I  frankly  confess  I  know  no  other,  nor 
do  I  wish  to  know.  The  Cross  knows  no  other.  He 
whose  love  and  mercy  are  literally  infinite  has  no  greater 
love  and  mercy  than  this.  There  is  "no  other  name 
given  under  heaven  among  men  whereby  you  must  be 
saved  but  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ."  There  are  other 
names,  but  they  have  no  influence  in  the  court  of  heaven. 
There  are  other  ways,  but  they  conduct  to  the  cham- 
bers of  death.  Perish  you  must,  and  ought,  if  you 
come  not  to  him.  0  Saviour !  thou  who  alone  art  the 
refuge  of  the  guilty,  "  to  v>rhom  shall  we  go  but  unto 
thee.  Thou  hast  the  word  of  eternal  life,  and  we  know, 
and  are  sure,  that  thou  art  that  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
living  God !" 


CHAPTER    X. 

A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

In  vindicating  the  claims  of  the  Cross,  I  have  been 
more  anxious  to  illustrate  and  enforce  the  great  truths 
which  it  discloses,  than  to  reply  to  the  cavils  of  those  who 
contend  with  their  Maker.  Where  the  truth  is  clearly- 
made  out,  it  is  enough  for  us  to  say  to  every  objector, 
"  Who  art  thou,  0  man,  that  repliest  against  God?"  I 
do  not  mean  by  this  to  say,  that  the  truth  of  God  shuns 
investigation;  for  the  more  clearly  it  is  exhibited  and 
understood,  the  more  certainly  will  it  appear  to  be  capa- 
ble of  the  most  satisfactory  vindication.  Where  the 
minds  of  men,  therefore,  are  honestly  embarrassed  in 
regard  to  it,  there  is  an  obligation,  so  far  as  it  can  be 
done,  to  remove  this  embarrassment;  and  more  espe- 
cially, where,  in  endeavoring  to  remove  it,  the  opportu- 
nity is  presented  of  exhibiting  truth  that  has  a  practical 
bearing  upon  the  conscience. 

Such  is  the  nature  of  the  objection  to  be  considered  in 
the  present  chapter.  The  Cross  of  Christ  proposes  to 
deliver,  and  actually  does  deliver,  all  who  believe  in  it 
from  eternal  punishment.  It  is  a  redemption  which 
assumes  that  the  sinner  deserves  eternal  death.  Men  have 
no  difficulty  in  believing  that  they  are  sinners,  and  deserve 
punishment ;  but  they  have  no  inward  sense  of  such  a 
measure  of  ill-desert  as  indicated  by  the  Gospel,  and  they 


158  A    STUJIBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

cannot  feel  that  it  would  be  -rig-ht  and  just  in  God  to  inflict 
upon  them  this  terrible  doom.  They  have  not,  perhaps, 
so  much  the  spirit  of  murmuring  and  complaint  against 
the  doctrine  of  future  and  eternal  punishment,  as  of 
doubt  and  fear  in  relation  to  their  own  inward  experience 
toward  this  great  truth.  No  man  is  qualified  to  contem- 
plate such  a  subject  without  strong  suspicions  of  himself, 
nor  without  feeling,  at  every  step  of  his  inquiries,  that  he 
is  exposed  to  come  to  false  conclusions.  May  He,  whose 
Spirit  alone  can  guide  the  writer  and  the  reader  into  all 
truth,  graciously  direct  and  influence  both  their  minds  to 
those  convictions  which  alone  magnify  the  salvation  of 
the  Cross ! 

It  will  not  be  denied  that  the  doctrine  of  future  and 
eternal  punishment,  as  revealed  in  the  Bible.,  is  a  truth 
which  is  necessary  to  be  believed,  in  order  to  true  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ.  This  position  is  most  certainly  in  keeping 
with  the  theory  of  divine  truth,  and,  so  far  as  my  know- 
ledge extends,  with  the  experience  of  mankind.  I  have 
never  known  a  Universalist,  who,  in  other  respects,  gave 
any  evidence  of  piety.  As  well  might  every  other  truth 
be  displaced  from  the  sacred  page-,  as  this.  Awful  as  it 
is,  it  is  recorded  as  on  tablets  of  stone,  and  written  with 
the  finger  of  God.  This  is  one  of  the  great  truths  of 
natural  religion,  which  are  confirmed  by  a  supernatural 
revelation.  One  great  object  of  this  revelation  is  to  open 
more  clearly  to  the  view  of  men  the  scenes  of  the  eternal 
world ;  to  unfold  the  great  catastrophe  of  this  sublunary 
state  of  things,  and  disclose  those  glorious  and  those  fear- 
ful retributions,  which  make  up  the  history  of  eternity. 
There  is  a  strong  presentiment  of  future  punishment, 
even  in  the  minds  of  those  who  are  not  thus  enlightened. 
The  belief  of  the  divine  justice  has  prevailed  in  every 
age   and   country.     The  history  of  the  heathen  world 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED.  ^59 

abounds  in  facts  that  indicate  the  belief  that  God  will 
not  permit  the  wickedness  of  men  to  escape  with  impu- 
nity. The  Apostle  Paul,  in  his  epistle  to  the  Romans, 
regards  this  belief  as  one  of  the  laws  of  natural  con- 
science. After  describing  the  moral  degradation  of  the 
Gentile  nations,  he  speaks  of  them  as  carrying  within 
their  own  bosoms  this  strong  and  inevitable  conviction  : 
''Who,  knowing  the  just  judgment  of  God,  that  they 
which  commit  such  things  are  worthy  of  death.'' ^  This 
voice  of  reason  and  conscience  is  echoed  in  the  Scriptures ; 
nor  is  it  possible  to  resist  the  force  of  their  instructions. 
They  explicitly  predict  a  future  state  of  being,  where  the 
"worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is  not  quenched;"  where 
is  the  "  blackness  of  darkness  forever;"  where  there  is 
eternally  ascending  the  smoke  of  torment.  They  speak 
of  the  impassable  gulf,  and  the  "  second  death,"  from 
whence  there  is  no  reprieve.  Nor  is  this  doctrine  one  of 
those  mysterious  truths  which  cannot  be  understood.  It 
is  not  like  the  unfathomable  nature  of  the  Deity  ;  it  has 
no  such  incomprehensibleness  thrown  around  it,  as  in- 
vests the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  or  the  doctrine  of  the 
Son's  Incarnation,  or  the  undiscovered  reasons  of  the 
eternal  and  unchangeable  decrees  of  God.  It  is  a  plain 
and  intelligible  doctrine,  revealed  without  concealment 
and  without  reserve ;  nor  is  there  anything  in  it  which 
the  mind  of  man  cannot  reach,  except  that  it  penetrates 
into  a  boundless  eternity.  Nor,  like  some  facts  revealed 
in  the  Scriptures,  does  it  resolve  itself  into  the  will  of  God 
as  its  ultimate  reason,  but  is  always  represented  as  the 
claim  of  his  righteous  government,  and  as  called  for  by 
the  sin  of  man.  Nor  is  it  revealed  as  one  of  the  minor 
and  less  important  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  but  one  which 
can  be  impaired  only  by  undermining  the  fabric  on  which 
the  whole  Gospel  rests.     It  is  in  every  \iew  fundamental 


160  A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

to  the  Christian  system,  essential  to  the  Gospel,  and 
necessary  to  its  existence.  If  this  doctrine  be  denied, 
the  denial  would,  in  its  legitimate  consequences,  subvert 
the  whole  design  of  salvation  by  grace  through  the  great 
Redeemer.  If  men  do  not  truly  deserve  future  and  eternal 
punishment,  then  is  there  no  grace  in  saving  them ;  for 
grace  consists  in  saving  men,  not  from  undeserved,  but 
from  deserved  misery.  If  we  could  make  the  hypothesis 
that  they  Avere  innocently  exposed  to  the  calamity  of 
perdition,  and  rescued  from  it  by  the  Gospel,  yet  would 
there  be  no  grace  in  the  deliverance,  unless  they  truly 
and  properly  deserved  the  damnation  of  hell.  If  the  con- 
verse of  this  be  true,  then  did  the  Son  of  God  become 
incarnate,  and  suffer  and  die  on  the  Cross,  to  satisfy  the 
claims  of  an  unrighteous  law,  and  to  rescue  men  from 
an  oppressive  and  unjust  sentence.  So  that,  however 
perplexing  this  truth  may  appear,  it  is  the  doctrine  which 
explains  the  whole  Gospel,  which  shows  why  it  is  neces- 
sary and  what  it  is,  and  explains  and  sets  in  its  true  light, 
and  assigns  its  proper  place  and  importance  to  every  other 
truth  inwoven  with  the  method  of  man's  redemption. 

It  may  perhaps  serve  to  obviate  the  difficulty  we  are 
considering,  to  inquire  into  the  true  meaning  and  import 
of  this  truth  itself.  Men  may  be  embarrassed  on  the 
subject  of  future  punishment,  by  not  clearly  perceiving 
those  great  principles  of  rectitude  on  which  it  proceeds. 
Of  one  thing  we  may  be  satisfied — that  God  will  not,  and 
cannot  do  wrong.  His  government  is  a  righteous  and 
equitable  government.  "  Is  God  unrighteous  ?  God  for- 
bid! How,  then,  shall  he  judge  the  world?"  Under  a 
righteous  government,  none  can  be  punished  more  than 
they  deserve.  They  may  be  rewarded  beyond  their 
merits,  as  a  matter  of  grace ;  but  they  cannot  be  punished 
beyond  their  deserts,  as  a  matter  of  justice.     It  were  no 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED.  15  ■[ 

more  consistent  with  the  moral  rectitude  of  God  to  punish 
the  innocent,  who  do  not  deserve  to  be  punished  at  all, 
than  to  punish  the  guilty  more  than  they  deserve  to  be 
punished.  This  is  the  intuitive  decision  of  every  man's 
conscience,  whether  he  be  young-  or  old,  enlightened  or 
unenlightened,  in  Christian  or  in  Pagan  lands.  None 
question  the  propriety  and  rectitude  of  soine  punishment 
for  sin ;  and  with  as  little  reason  may  they  question  the 
propriety  of  punishing  the  offender  in  proportion  to  his 
demerit,  or  according  to  impartial  and  even-handed  jus- 
tice. This  is  the  true  doctrine  of  future  punishment ;  the 
Scriptures  reveal  no  other.  All  are  not  punished  alike, 
but  in  exact  proportion  to  their  ill-desert.  Should  the 
time  never  come  that  the  wicked  have  suffered  all  that 
they  deserve  to  suffer,  it  will  be  because  justice  demands 
that  their  punishment  should  never  cease. 

The  difficulty  in  relation  to  future  and  eternal  punish- 
ment, is  not,  therefore,  that  it  is  unrighteous  to  punish 
men  as  much  as  they  deserve,  but  in  the  fact  that  all  do 
not  see  how  they  deserve  the  fearful  and  everlasting  pun- 
ishment threatened  in  the  Bible.  The  issue  is  a  most 
grave  and  serious  one.  When  we  have  shown  that  the 
punishment  which  God  inflicts  is  everlasting,  and  that 
God  himself  is  righteous,  we  can  do  little  more  than 
leave  the  objector  to  make  his  cause  good  at  the  bar  of 
eternal  justice.  Men  are  not  satisfied  with  the  truth  that 
they  deserve  God's  wrath  and  curse,  both  in  this  life  and 
that  which  is  to  come.  Objections  to  it  are  met  with 
almost  everywhere,  and  from  almost  all  classes  of  men ; 
from  the  subtil  and  bold  Universalist,  who  denies  it ; 
from  the  alarmed  and  awakened  sinner  who  fears  it ; 
and  even  from  some  who,  while  they  acquiesce  in  it, 
and  humbly  receive  it  on  the  divine  testimony,  see  it  in  a 
"  temperature  of  mingled  light  and  obscurity,"  and  are 


IQ2  A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

looking  for  clearer  and  more  satisfactory  solutions  of  it  in 
the  more  luminous  disclosures  of  the  eternal  world.  To 
not  a  few,  it  remains  in  impenetrable  obscurity,  with 
darkness  for  its  habit'ation,  and  its  pavilion  thick  clouds. 
They  cannot  connect  with  it  those  reasons  with  which 
it  is  connected  in  the  divine  mind,  and  can  only  say, 
"  It  is  a  great  deep ;"  and  in  their  humblest  contem- 
plations of  it,  exclaim,  "  How  unsearchable  are  his  judg- 
ments, and  his  ways  past  finding  out!" 

It  is  no  uncommon  occurrence  for  men  to  complain  of 
temporal  judgments,  and  to  inquire,  what  they  have  done 
to  provoke  the  Most  High  to  visit  them,  as  he  has  done 
in  his  anger  1    Nor  is  it  any  extraordinary  event  for  them, 
in  some  subsequent  period  of  their  history,  to  be  fully 
convinced  that  their  complaints  were  groundless,   and 
that  they  deserve  the  judgments  which  God  has  inflicted. 
They  have  com.e  to  more  matured  and  just  impressions 
of  themselves,  and  no  longer  wonder  why  a  holy  God 
should   look  upon  them  with    displeasure.     The   more 
seriously  men  reflect  upon  what  God  is,  and  what  they 
themselves  are,  the  fewer  difficulties  will  they  have  in 
regard  to  eternal  punishment.     The  views  and  feelings 
of  different  persons  on  this  whole  subject  are  very  vari- 
ous, and  sometimes  strangely  inconsistent.     There  are 
those  who  find  no  difficulty  in  seeing  that  other  men 
deserve  this  tremendous  penalty ;   but  they  cannot  see 
that  they  themselves  deserve  it.     And  there  are  those 
who  have  no  difficulty  in  seeing  that  they  themselves 
deserve  it ;    while  they  have  never  been  so  clearly  con- 
vinced as  they  desire  to  be,  i\\dX  others,  and  all,  deserve  it. 
There  is  no  subject  in  relation  to  which  they  are  more 
exposed  to  practice  great  self-deception.    A  deep  sense  of 
personal  ill-desert  is  a  most  humbling,  mortifying  and 
withering  thought ;  it  makes  the  proud  and  self-compla- 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED.  153 

cent  mind  of  man  stoop ;  it  bows  and  crushes  his  lofty 
spirit,  and  he  resists  it  as  long  as  he  can.  It  is  among 
the  melancholy  proofs  of  human  apostacy,  that  no  train 
of  reflections  is  more  unwelcome  than  that  which  is  con- 
nected with  his  ill-desert;  which  impresses  a  strong  con- 
viction of  guilt,  and  furnishes  alarming  presages  of 
deserved  wrath.  It  is  not  so  much  the  apprehension  of 
calamity  and  suffering  from  which  the  mind  revolts, 
as  that  degrading  sense  of  shame  that  comes  upon  it, 
because  it  must  bear  the  blame  as  well  as  the  woes  of 
evil-doing.  The  practical  difficulties  which  attend  the 
doctrine  of  eternal  punishment,  arise  from  inadequate 
impressions  of  ill-desert.  A  strong  sense  of  ill-desert 
not  only  prepares  the  mind  to  contemplate  the  eter- 
nal punishment  of  the  wicked  as  a  righteous  measure 
of  the  divine  government,  but  is  inseparable  from  a  con- 
viction of  its  rectitude.  Where  this  impression  exists,  a 
man  not  only  sees  that  God  is  angry  with  him,  but  that 
he  has  just  reason  to  be  angry.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact, 
that  when  once  the  mind  possesses  a  deep  impression  of 
ill-desert,  it  is  a  permanent  impression  ;  nothing  can  take 
it  away.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  it  can  be  taken 
away,  either  in  this  world,  or  that  which  is  to  come.  No 
man  ever  undertook  a  more  hopeless  task  than  to  mea- 
sure the  depth  of  his  own  ill-deservings ;  nor  does  he 
know  that  any  line  can  measure  it  but  eternity.  If  he 
was  ill-deserving  yesterday,  he  is  still  more  ill-deserving 
to-day,  and  will  be  still  more  so  to-morrow ;  and  fifty,  an 
hundred,  a  thousand  years  hence,  if  he  continues  in  sin,  he 
will  be  more  ill-deserving  still.  After  all  his  efforts  he  will 
find  it  impossible  for  him  to  fix  upon  any  period  in  his  fu- 
ture history  in  which  he  will  cease  to  be  ill-deserving,  or 
in  which  a  sense  of  his  ill-desert  will  pass  away.  It  is 
not  wonderful,  therefore,  that  men  feel  embarrassment  in 


164  A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

regard  to  the  future  punishment  of  the  wicked,  who  have 
no  just  impressions  of  their  ill-desert.  It  is  only  by  a 
profound  submission  of  the  soul  to  a  sense  of  its  ill-desert, 
offensive  and  repugnant  as  it  may  be  to  the  pride  and 
peace  of  man,  that  he  learns  that  God  is  just  when  he 
judges,  and  clear  when  he  condemns. 

But  whence  his  repugnance  to  a  sense  of  ill-desert  1 
It  is  not  necessary  to  go  far  in  order  to  answer  this  in- 
quiry.    Ill-desert  is  that  which  is  blameable  and  punish- 
able in  moral  conduct.    A  sense  of  it  arises  from  a  sense 
of  ^in.     God  punishes  men  because  they  are  sinners;  and 
he  punishes  them  forever,  because  their  wickedness  is  so 
great,  and  their  sin  so  exceedingly  sinful,  that  eternal 
punishment  is  the  true  and  proper  expression  of  his  dis- 
pleasure.    The  true  reason  for  his  displeasure  against 
sin  is  not  because  he  is  afraid  that  it  will  injure  himself, 
for  he  is  infinitely  above  it,  and  can  and  will  make  it 
subservient  to  his  own  purposes.     Nor  is  it  because  he  is 
afraid  that  it  will  injure  his  kingdom,  and  that  his  holy 
empire   will    receive    any   ultimate    detriment   from    it. 
These  tendencies  he  will  restrain   and  counteract,  and 
finally  turn  them  to  good  account.     He  punishes  it  be- 
cause it  is  sin  ;  because  it  is  hateful,  and  is,  and  must 
forever  remain,  displeasing  to  his  pure  and  holy  mind. 
Sin  is  the  only  thing  in  the  universe  that  does  displease 
him,  and  the  sinner  is  the  only  being  in  the  universe  that  he 
hates  and  will  punish.     He  does  not  punish  the  winter's 
cold,  nor  the  summer's  heat,  nor  the  pestilence,  nor  the  tor- 
nado, nor  the  wild  beasts  of  the  desert,  though  they  may 
spread  desolation  and  death  over  the  habitations  of  men  ; 
because,  lamentable  as  these  evils  may  be,  they  are  not 
sinful :  they  indicate  no  inward  wickedness,  and  call  for 
no  expressions  of  his  displeasure.     They  do  not  deserve, 
and   are  not  the  proper   objects   of  'punishment.      But 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    HEMOVED.  IQ^ 

when  man  sins,  he  makes  himself  vile,  odious,  and  ill- 
deserving  ;  he  draws  down  upon  him  the  displeasure  of 
that  great  and  pure  Being,  in  whose  sight  the  heavens 
are  unclean.  Men  have  no  just  sense  of  their  ill-desert, 
therefore,  because  they  have  no  just  sense  of  their  sins. 
They  are  deeply  concerned  to  have  just  impressions  of  their 
wickedness  ;  but  when  you  look  over  the  world,  through 
all  climes,  all  ages,  all  classes  of  men,  and  within  your  own 
bosoms,  you  nowhere  find  those  who  have  a  just  and  pro- 
per sense  of  their  wickedness.  It  may  be  doubted  whether 
a  true  and  just  sense  of  it  would  not  be  more  than  the 
human  mind  could  endure.  I  have  seen  persons  who  had 
very  strong  views  of  their  own  sinfulness ;  but  they  were 
fearful  spectacles  of  suffering,  and  more  like  some  vision 
of  the  infernal  regions  than  scenes  usually  beheld  on  this 
earth.  The  people  of  God  often  have  very  deep  impres- 
sions of  their  sinfulness,  but  the  agony  produced  by  them 
is  chastened  and  relieved  by  believing  views  of  the 
Cross.  And  not  unfrequently  they  themselves  find  great 
diflftculty  in  coming  to  any  such  views  of  it  as  make  the 
Cross  of  Christ  precious  to  them  at  all  times.  They  are 
free  to  acknowledge  this  difficulty,  and  are  often  heard 
to  say,  "  Make  me  to  know  my  transgression  and  my 
sin." — "Who  can  understand  his  errors  !  cleanse  thou  me 
from  secret  faults  !"  Sin  disguises  itself  and  conceals 
its  nature.  It  has  a  powerful,  subtil  and  sophistical  ad- 
vocate in  every  man's  heart  to  plead  its  cause,  and  hide 
its  deformity  ;  and  if  this  is  true  of  good  men,  how  em- 
phatically is  it  true  of  the  wicked.  With  all  its  nauseous 
poison,  to  a  corrupt  and  depraved  mind,  sin  is  always 
sweet  and  palatable.  Monster  as  it  is,  it  never  shows  it- 
self in  all  its  true  deformity,  or  wears  its  own  proper  garb. 
It  is  forever  calling  itself  by  false  names ;  or  transform- 
ing itself  into  an  angel  of  light ;  or  tasking  its  ingenuity 


IQQ  A    STUMBLIKG-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

for  some  specious  apology,  some  plausible  excuse,  by 
which  it  may  be  palliated.  Even  with  all  the  light  which 
the  word  of  God  has  thrown  upon  the  aggravated  char- 
acter of  human  wickedness,  wicked  men  never  see  it  in 
any  degree  as  it  is.  They  do  not  believe  what  God  him- 
self has  said  concerning  it ;  they  view  with  a  jealous  eye 
the  descriptions  he  has  given  of  their  hearts  ;  and  not  a 
few  repel  them  as  a  libel  upon  their  character.  No ;  men 
have  no  just  impressions  of  their  wickedness.  They 
think  not  of  its  intrinsic  turpitude  ;  they  look  not  to  the 
fountain  of  it  within ;  they  count  not  its  numbers,  nor 
measure  its  aggravations ;  they  follow  it  riot  into  its 
deep  retirement  and  dark  secrecy  ;  they  dream  not  of  its 
nameless  forms  of  omission  and  commission,  of  its  utter 
Avant  of  affectionate  and  dutiful  regard  for  God,  and 
contempt  and  abuse  of  his  authority  and  goodness. 
They  have  little  self-inspection,  and  therefore  discover 
no  serious  ground  for  self-reproach.  The  mind,  like  the 
eye  of  man,  sees  everything  else  more  clearly  than  it- 
self. No  man  indeed  ever  arrived  to  any  just  view  of 
his  sins  by  the  mere  process  of  human  reasoning,  or  by 
anything  short  of  the  illuminating  and  convincing  power 
of  God's  Spirit.  "  When  the  Spirit  of  truth  is  come, 
he  shall  convince  the  world  of  sin.' ^ 

Here,  then,  we  find  the  cause  of  much,  if  not  of  all 
the  embarrassment  men  feel  in  respect  to  future  and 
eternal  punishment.  They  have  no  just  impression  of 
their  ill-desert ;  and  because  they  have  no  adequate  sense 
of  sin  and  their  own  sinfulness,  their  embarrassment  is 
always  relieved  just  in  the  measure  in  which  their 
understandings  are  illuminated,  their  consciences  recti- 
fied, and  their  hearts  affected,  by  a  sense  of  sin. 

Whence  then  is  it  that  men  find  it  so  difficult  to  have 
just  conceptions  of  their  sin  ?     There  are  several  reasons 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK-  REMOVED. 


167 


for  this  fact  that  will  occur  to  every  reflecting-  mind. 
They  themselves  are  sinners.  It  is  impossible  they  should 
judge  impartially  on  such  a  subject.  They  are  the  inter- 
ested parties.  They  are  sitting  in  judgment  on  their  own 
case,  which  the  common  sense  of  mankind  everywhere 
affirms  they  are  not  qualified  to  do.  In  human  aflfairs, 
it  is  the  appropriate  business  of  the  law  to  fix  the  ill-desert 
of  crime  ;  and  it  is  the  appropriate  business  of  impartial 
men,  appointed  by  the  law,  to  decide  the  fact  whether 
this  ill-desert  attaches  itself  to  the  accused  individual.  If 
a  human  legislature,  composed  of  Sabbath-breakers,  were 
to  enact  laws  which  define  the  ill-desert  of  Sabbath- 
breaking  ;  or  if  a  legislature  of  gamblers,  or  of  duelists, 
or  of  adulterers,  or  of  murderers,  were  to  enact  laws 
which  define  the  guilt  of  gambling,  dueling,  adultery 
and  murder  ;  who  does  not  see  that  they  would  be  under 
irresistible  temptations  to  diminish  the  turpitude  of  these 
crimes  1  Or  if  a  jury  were  composed  of  persons,  who  were 
themselves  in  the  prevailing  habit  of  committing  the 
crime  for  which  they  are  called  to  sit  in  judgment  on  one 
of  their  fellow-men  ;  who  does  not  see  that  their  verdict 
would  not  be  very  likely  to  be  impartial.?  This  is  pre- 
cisely the  condition  of  all  men,  when  sitting  in  judgment 
upon  the  ill-desert  of  sin.  They  are  under  strong  tempt- 
ations to  palliate,  if  not  to  justify,  their  conduct,  and  to 
form  as  favorable  an  estimate  of  it  as  they  can.  If  men 
could  be  found  who  were  themselves  perfectly  sinless  and 
pure,  their  judgment  of  the  ill-desert  of  sin  would  be 
founded  upon  very  different  principles  from  those  which 
influence  ours :  it  would  be  less  difficult  for  them  to  fall 
in  with  the  revealed  decisions  of  the  impartial  Lawgiver 
and  Judge. 

Our  impressions  of  the  ill-desert  of  sin  are  influenced, 
also,  by  our  constant  familiarity  with  it.     We  are  fa- 


168  A    STUIMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

miliar  with  it  in  others,  and  we  are  still  more  familiar 
with  it  in  ourselves.  There  is  nothing  with  which  the 
great  mass  of  mankind  are  so  familiar ;  and  it  were  no 
marvel  if  their  views  of  its  ill-desert  should  be  greatly- 
biassed  by  this  familiarity.  The  first  impressions  of  a 
stranger  who  has  never  before  witnessed  the  scenes  of 
wickedness  that  everywhere  meet  his  eye  in  this  me- 
tropolis, are  very  different  from  what  they  come  to  be 
after  he  has  been  familiarized  with  them  for  a  series  of 
years.  The  iuAvard  shuddering,  the  instinctive  horror 
they  first  excited  have  passed  away,  and  he  is  tempted 
to  regard  them  with  a  sort  of  indifference.  A  little  child 
has  a  strong  native  propensity  to  sin,  yet,  when  he  first 
sees,  or  hears,  or  contemplates  flagrant  wickedness,  his 
moral  sensibilities  are  pained  and  shopked ;  but  by  a 
gradual  familiarity  Avith  it  he  survives  the  shock,  and  his 
sense  of  its  turpitude  not  only  becomes  less  and  less  vivid, 
but  well  nigh  ceases  to  exist.  It  is  thus  that  those  who 
venture  on  forbidden  paths  so  often  make  such  rapid 
progress  in  sinning.  Their  familiarity  with  wickedness 
imperceptibly  leads  them  on,  and  makes  them  insensible  of 
its  vileness.  There  was  a  time  when  the  most  abandoned 
sinner  in  the  world  would  have  trembled  to  think  of  the 
crimes  he  afterwards  committed.  Men  first  become 
familiar  with  sin  in  their  thoughts;  then,  by  small 
beginnings,  they  become  familiar  with  sinful  practices  ; 
then,  because  they  do  not  look  so  frightful  as  before,  they 
are  familiar  with  sins  of  a  deeper  dye.  Though  all  men 
have  a  witness  for  God  in  their  own  consciences,  there  is 
no  man  who  is  not  lamentably  familiar  with  the  sin  of 
disregarding  the  divine  authority,  and  violating  the 
strongest  moral  obligations.  This  fact  alone  renders  it  a 
very  difficult  thing  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  the  turpi- 
tude and  ill-desert  of  human  wickedness.     If  in  the  same 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED.  J^gg 

measure  in  which  men  are  familiar  with  sin,  it  loses  its 
ugliness,  we  may  not  wonder  that  in  the  same  measure 
do  they  cease  to  be  disgusted  with  it,  and  their  impres- 
sions of  its  ill-desert  fall  short  of  what  it  deserves  in  the 
sight  of  God.  It  is  impossible  for  them  to  estimate  its 
ill-desert  as  angels  estimate  it,  as  the  Saviour  estimates 
it,  and  as  the  Holy  God  estimates  it.  Even  the  best  of 
men  have,  in  this  respect,  placed  themselves  in  a  false 
position.  They  estimate  it  more  justly  than  men  who 
have  no  holiness,  because  they  are  sanctified  in  part,  are 
partakers  of  the  divine  nature,  have  imbibed  the  spirit 
of  Christ,  and  feel  toward  sin  in  some  degree  as  God 
feels,  and  hate  it  to  a  degree  that  makes  it  their  sorrow 
and  burden ;  but  because  these  views  and  feelings  toward 
it  are  by  no  means  constant  and  uniform,  and  equally 
strong  at  all  times,  they  fail  of  appreciating  the  turpitude 
and  ill-desert  of  it  as  they  themselves  will  do  when  they 
have  hereafter  become  holy  as  God  is  holy,  and  perfect 
as  their  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect. 

Not  only  are  all  men  sinners,  and  familiar  with  sin, 
but  great  multitudes  have  no  enlightened  and  tender  con- 
science. It  is  not  so  much  the  province  of  reason  to  arrive 
at  just  conclusions  in  regard  to  the  demerit  of  sin,  as  it  is 
the  province  of  conscience ;  and  conscience  may  be  easily 
blinded,  bribed  and  corrupted  to  false  conclusions.  If 
we  look  into  the  Bible,  we  shall  find  that  those  of  the 
sacred  writers  who  had  the  deepest  impressions  of  their 
personal  ill-desert,  were  remarkable  for  that  moral  sensi- 
tiveness which  results  from  tenderness  of  conscience. 
The  offending  Psalmist  felt  no  embarrassment  in  relation 
to  his  own  ill-desert,  when  he  said,  "  Against  thee, 
thee  only,  have  I  sinned,  and  done  this  evil  in  thy  sight; 
that  thou  mightest  be  justified  when  thou  speakest,  and  be 
clear  token  thou  judgest.^^  He  acquits  God  of  all  severity, 
8 


170  A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

should  he  inflict  upon  him  the  sentence  of  his  righteous 
law.  He  had  the  same  views  also  of  the  ill-desert  of  his 
fellow-men  ;  for  he  says,  "  If  thou,  Lord,  shouldest  mark 
iniquity,  0  Lord,  who  could  stand  1"  It  was,  in  his  judg- 
ment, nothing  more  than  strict,  impartial  justice,  even 
should  the  fearful  penalty  fall  upon  the  entire  race.  His 
conscience  was  thoroughly  awake.  When  he  contem- 
plated his  sins,  he  expressed  his  emotions  in  language 
unusually  strong.  "Mine  iniquities,"  says  he,  "are 
gone  over  my  head  ;  as  an  heavy  burden,  they  are  too 
heavy  for  me.  I  am  troubled ;  I  am  bowed  down 
greatly ;  I  go  mourning  all  the  day  long.  I  am  feeble 
and  sore  broken ;  I  have  roared  by  reason  of  the  disqui- 
etude of  my  heart!"  Such,  too,  were  the  views  and 
experience  of  Paul,  as  he  has  represented  them  in  the 
account  which  he  has  given  of  his  early  convictions  : 
"  For  I  was  alive  without  the  law  once  ;  but  when  the 
commandment  came,  sin  revived  and  I  died,  and  the 
commandment  which  was  ordained  to  life  I  found  to  be 
unto  death.  Wherefore  the  law  is  holy,  and  the  com- 
mandment holy,  just  and  good.''  He  records  his  appro- 
bation, not  only  of  the  precept  of  the  law,  but  of  its 
penalty;  and  "  consents  to  it,  that  it  is  good.''  His  con- 
science was  enlightened  and  tender.  He  felt  the  burden 
of  his  sins  so  deeply,  that  he  exclaimed,  "  0  wretched 
man  that  I  am  !  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this 
death?"  Even  good  men  differ  greatly  in  this  tenderness  of 
conscience.  Some  have  deeper  convictions  of  sin  before 
their  conversion  ;  and  some  have  deeper  convictions  after 
their  conversion  than  before.  But  to  whatever  extent, 
and  at  whatever  time,  these  convictions  take  place,  the 
deeper,  the  more  powerful,  and  pungent,  and  overwhelm- 
ing they  are,  and  the  more  they  prostrate  the  sinner  in 
the  dust,  the  less  likely  are  they  to  be  forgotten,  and  the 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    RE]MOVED. 


171 


deeper  is  the  impression  they  make  of  personal  ill-desert. 
It  is  only  because  conscience  is  not  duly  awake  and  faith- 
ful, that  men  complain  of  the  severity  of  future  and 
eternal  punishment.  Where  the  conscience  is  sensitive, 
their  difficulties  arise  from  another  quarter.  They  see 
clearly  enough  that  it  is  perfectly  just  and  right  that  God 
should  condemn  them  ;  but  they  do  not  so  readily  see  how 
it  can  be  just  and  right  that  he  should  deliver  them  from 
this  deserved  condemnation.  It  is  not  necessary  even  to 
see  themselves  in  all  their  odious ness  in  order  to  come  to 
this  conclusion.  Conscience  has  no  imputations  of  rigor 
against  the  condemning  sentence.  The  truly  convinced 
sinner  clears  God  of  all  such  unjust  allegations.  No 
vords  can  express  the  enormity  of  his  guilt.  When  men 
venture  to  pass  judgment  upon  the  government  of  God, 
and  to  arraign  the  penalty  of  his  law  as  unjust  and  severe, 
it  is  because  they  have  never  felt  the  full  weight  of  a 
self-condemning  conscience.  Conscience  is  blinded  and 
stupefied.  Just  as  the  natural  senses  are  sometimes 
paralyzed  by  the  disease  of  the  body,  the  conscience  is 
paralyzed  by  sin,  the  great  disease  of  the  soul.  Just  as 
diseases  of  the  body  disturb  the  harmony  of  the  animal 
functions,  so  that  they  no  longer  act  in  mutual  concurrence 
and  subordination,  does  sin  disturb  the  harmony  of 
the  soul,  so  that  its  powers  and  faculties  no  longer  act 
in  due  subordination  and  concurrence.  The  Apostle 
speaks  of  those  whose  "  mind  and  conscience  are  defiled  ;" 
its  power  and  tenderness  are  impaired  by  sin.  An  ob- 
durate conscience  gradually  becomes  more  callous  and 
seared  ;  whereas,  a  sensitive  conscience  becomes  more 
and  more  sensitive,  and  the  gentlest  reproof  renews  its 
grief.  An  honest  conscience  does  not  ask  how  sin  may 
be  screened,  but  how  it  may  be  detected ;  nor  does  it 
ever  so  nicely  philosophize  as  to  inquire  how  little  pun- 


172  A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

ishment  it  deserves.  The  vilest  man  admits  a  sort  of  pro- 
portion between  sin  and  punishment;  and  it  is  only 
because  a  sense  of  guilt  is  not  fastened  on  his  con- 
science, that  he  hesitates  to  admit  the  proportion  which 
God  himself  has  established.  Conscience  sometimes 
awakes  even  in  the  bosoms  of  the  vilest  men  when  they 
come  to  their  dying  pillow ;  and  then  they  begin  to  feel 
the  gnawings  of  the  worm  that  will  never  die.  Conscience 
must  speak,  sooner  or  later ;  it  will  speak  hereafter  ;  and 
when  it  does,  its  verdict  will  be  the  same  with  that  of 
the  righteous  Judge.  Men  shun  the  warnings  of  con- 
science, little  thinking  of  the  peril  of  so  doing.  If  they 
do  not  listen  to  them  in  seasons  of  mercy  and  health, 
they  may  break  in  upon  them  in  the  time  of  affliction 
and  at  the  hour  of  death.  They  may  indeed  be  stifled  till 
after  death,  and  for  the  first  time  heard  only  in  the  world 
of  everlasting  remorse  and  despair. 

The  difficulty  of  coming  at  a  true  sense  of  sin,  is  also 
to  be  attributed  to  the  want  of  watchful  and  persevering 
efforts  to  restrain  and  subdue  it.  Our  sense  of  the  demerit 
of  sin  is  always  in  proportion  to  our  impressions  of  its 
strength  and  power;  while  our  impressions  of  its  strength 
and  power  are  always  graduated  by  our  efl^brts  to  restrain 
it.  A  man  never  knows  the  power  and  malignity  of  a 
deadly  pestilence,  until  he  undertakes  to  subdue  it ;  nor 
the  fierceness  of  the  raging  flames,  until  he  endeavors  to 
quench  them ;  nor  the  sweeping  force  of  a  rushing  and 
resistless  torrent,  until  he  tries  to  obstruct  or  divert  it  from 
its  course.  It  is  not  surprising  that  those  who  make  no 
resistance  to  the  force  of  their  corruptions,  who  never 
attempt  to  restrain  their  sinful  thoughts  and  desires,  but 
allow  themselves  to  be  carried  away  by  the  subtilty  or 
force  of  their  evil  inclinations,  should  have  no  just  im- 
pressions of  their  guilty  character.     Let  them,  by  daily 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED.  173 

watchfulness  and  prayer,  and  by  summoning  the  greatest 
efforts  of  then-  resokition,  endeavor  to  control  their  cor- 
rupt nature,  and  to  stem  its  torrent ;  and  they  will  see 
that  nothing  can  set  bounds  to  it,  but  the  almighty  power 
and  sovereign  grace  of  God.  Their  views  of  its  mahg- 
nity  will  no  longer  be  speculative  and  theoretical,  but 
the  views  of  experience.  Nothing  which  men  can  do 
sets  in  a  clearer  light  the  power  of  sin,  than  vigorous 
efforts  to  restrain  it.  They  become  sensible  of  their  moral 
bondage,  only  by  finding  themselves  unable  to  break  its 
chains.  A  man  who  endeavors  to  be  sincere  and  punc- 
tual in  the  performance  of  his  duty ;  who  cultivates  a 
strong  sense  of  his  obligations  to  do  all  that  God  requires  ; 
who  finds  his  joy  in  the  fellowship  and  enjoyment  of  Him, 
the  light  of  whose  countenance  feeds  and  satisfies  the 
glorified  spirits  that  are  around  his  throne  ;  soon  becomes 
conscious  of  the  melancholy  extent  to  which  sin  obstructs 
his  progress,  cools  his  zeal,  makes  perpetual  inroads  upon 
his  peace  and  spiritual  enjoyment,  corrupts  his  motives, 
disqualifies  him  for  his  duty,  and  obscures  the  light  of 
God's  countenance.  No  sooner  does  he  see  and  feel  these 
things,  than  he  has  very  different  views  of  his  character  as 
a  sinner,  and  of  his  true  and  intrinsic  ill-desert,  from  those 
superficial  views  which  are  so  common  among  men.  His 
iniquity  will  appear  hateful  to  himself,  and  he  will  no 
longer  wonder  that  it  is  infinitely  and  eternally  hateful  to 
God,  or  that  he  should  put  upon  it  the  stigma  of  his  ever- 
lasting displeasure.  It  is  impossible  that  those  who  make 
no  efforts  to  restrain  and  subdue  their  moral  corruptions, 
should  have  any  just  sense  of  the  malignity  of  sin,  or  its 
proper  demerit.  They  do  not  feel  its  power,  and  there- 
fore have  no  proper  sense  of  the  punishment  it  deserves. 
They  know  little  of  its  resistless  nature,  until  they  come 
to  put  their  strong  restraints  upon  it ;  and  then  they  see 


174  A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

how  vile  it  is,  and  how  ill-deserving  they  themselves 
are. 

I  will  mention  only  one  more  fact  that  should  be  taken 
into  the  account  when  reflecting-  on  this  general  subject: 
it  is,  the  low  estimate  which  men  form  of  the  spirituality 
and  obligations  of  the  divine  law.  Sin  is  the  transgres- 
sion of  the  law.  The  law  of  God  is  the  only  unerring 
standard  of  moral  character  in  the  universe,  and  is  alike 
applicable  to  all  the  various  orders  of  intelligences  in  all 
worlds.  It  is  founded  on  their  nature  and  moral  re- 
lations; is  level  to  their  intellectual  capacity ;  comes  home 
to  their  bosoms ;  requires  what  is  right,  and  forbids  only 
what  is  wrong;  and  enforces  those  great  principles  of 
truth  and  duty  which  are  essential  to  the  well-being  of 
all  creatures,  by  the  authority  of  Him  who  is  the  Cre- 
ator and  proprietor  of  all  things,  and  is  himself  the 
eternal  and  undisputed  Sovereign  and  Lawgiver.  Were 
this  law  universally  disobeyed  in  heaven,  heaven  would 
be  instantly  transformed  into  "  a  spacious  hell."  Be- 
cause it  is  so  universally  disobeyed  on  earth,  the  world  in 
which  we  dwell  ever  has  presented,  and  still  presents, 
such  scenes  of  unkindness,  hatred,  revenge,  pride,  rage, 
ambition,  envy,  and  every  evil  work.  Because  it  is  uni- 
versally disobeyed  and  trampled  on  in  hell,  hell  is  what 
it  is — a  world  where  malevolence  is  unrestrained ;  and 
falsehood,  deceit,  violence,  and  every  malignant  passion, 
raging  without  control,  constitute  their  own  punish- 
ment, and  suffer  under  the  frown  and  curse  of  the  angry 
Lawgiver.  This  great  rule  of  action  draws  the  line  of 
demarkation  between  the  worlds  of  light  aud  darkness  ; 
and  in  language,  amid  scenes,  as  full  of  fearful  emphasis 
as  the  mind  of  man  can  conceive,  warns  men  of  the 
danger  of  infringing  in  the  least  degree  upon  those  high 
and  holy  precepts  and  prohibitions,  a  sacred  and  invio- 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED.  175 

lable  regard  to  which  constitutes  all  moral  excellence  and 
true  blessedness.  And  why  should  it  be  the  subject  of 
complaint,  that  no  being  may  cross  this  dividing  line, 
without  stepping  into  the  world  of  darkness,  and  at  every 
stage  of  his  progress  meeting  his  Maker's  wrath?  Why 
should  it  be  thought  strange,  that  the  farther  and  the 
longer  he  wanders,  the  more  bitterly  must  he  suffer'? 
The  law  makes  no  provision  for  his  release.  Neither  its 
precept  nor  its  penalty  intimates  any  way  of  returning  to 
God  ;  nor  is  there  anything  in  the  character  of  the  trans- 
gressor that  indicates  the  least  desire  or  symptom  of 
reformation.  Sin  begets  sin,  and  sin  only,  and  con- 
tinues to  beget  it  throughout  interminable  ages.  The 
first  step  was  the  fatal  step.  Once  initiated  in  a  course 
of  sinning,  and  an  eternity  of  sinning  and  suffering  is 
both  the  natural  and  legal  consequence. 

And  where  is  the  severity  of  the  divine  government  in 
such  an  arrangement  as  this  ?  Is  not  the  punishment 
exactly  adjusted  to  the  crime  1  Is  it  not  even  justice?  Is 
it  not  the  recompense  strictly  due  to  transgression  ?  Does 
not  the  presumptuous  aud  fearful  deed  which  thus  in- 
volves contempt  of  the  supreme  authority  of  heaven  and 
earth,  which  aims  at  disturbing  the  moral  order  and 
government  of  the  universe,  and  is,  in  itself,  eternal  re- 
pugnance to  all  that  is  good  and  excellent,  draw  after  it 
everlasting  ill-desert,  and  call  for  just  such  reprobation 
as  the  law  prescribes  ?  The  justice  of  God  consists  in 
the  imjjartial  execution  of  his  laws,  without  favor  to  the 
high  or  the  low,  and  with  exact  regard  to  the  character 
of  his  creatures.  It  knows  neither  angel  nor  man  ;  it  is 
alike  a  stranger  to  the  seraph  and  the  beggar.  When 
angels  set  it  at  defiance,  they  must  die.  There  was  no 
return  for  them  ;  nor  had  they,  nor  have  they  now,  any 
desire  to  return,  but  are  more  fortified  and  obdurate  in 


]76  A    STUMBLIXG-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

llieir  rebellion  the  longer  they  persist  in  it,  and  are  made 
to  feel  its  woes.  And  if  its  condemning-  wrath  were 
just  to  fallen  angels,  why  is  it  not  just  to  apostate  men  ? 
Must  these  princes  of  heaven,  who  once  occupied  a  throne 
near  their  Maker,  become  forever  accursed  and  miserable 
for  their  rebellion,  and  shall  man  complain  when  he 
swells  with  insolence  against  his  Sovereign  Lawgiver, 
that  he  is  struck  down  into  the  burning  lake  ?  The  ma- 
lignity of  sin  arises  from  the  depravity  of  the  sinner's 
heart ;  but  its  enormity  is  measured  by  the  greatness  of 
the  Being  against  whom  it  is  committed,  and  its  daring 
violation  of  his  supreme  dominion.  Fallen  angels  have 
never  been  known  to  complain  of  the  rigor  of  the  divine 
law ;  and  why  should  man  complain  ?  Rather  would  I 
ask,  why  is  not  the  rectitude  of  the  law  even  more  con- 
spicuous towards  fallen  men? — men  who  live  under  a 
dispensation  of  mercy — a  dispensation  that  has  provided 
a  way  of  return^  as  well  as  pardon,  on  the  simple  condi- 
tion of  acknowledging  the  justice  and  rectitude  of  the 
condemning  sentence,  and  repairing  to  the  appointed 
Saviour  ?  Men  do  not  see  the  evil,  nor  feel  the  ill-de- 
sert, of  that  rash  and  presumptuous  deed  which  violates 
and  tramples  on  the  law  and  authority  of  the  great  Su- 
preme, and  persists  in  unhallowed  contempt  of  his 
government,  because  they  depreciate  that  law  and  that 
authority.  They  do  not  feel  the  demerit  of  that  blind 
and  headstrong  wickedness  which  crosses  the  line  of 
demarkation  between  the  empire  of  God's  friends  and 
his  enemies,  and  chooses  to  roam  over  the  regions  of  sin 
and  darkness,  because  they  do  what  in  them  lies  to  ob- 
literate the  line  itself.  They  make  light  of  sin,  because 
they  make  light  of  God ;  because  they  make  light  of 
his  pure  and  holy  law ;  and  in  the  place  of  this  unchang- 
ing and  unerring  standard  of  obligation,  set  up  their  own 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED.  177 

notions  of  right  and  wrong- ;  appeal  to  the  false  customs 
and  manners  and  principles  of  the  world  ;  reason  not  as 
God  reasons,  but  pervert  and  lower  that  high  standard 
which  he  has  made  the  infallible  rule  of  their  conduct, 
and  the  righteous  Judge  of  their  iniquity.  The  more 
men  love  the  law  of  God,  the  more  they  will  see  the 
guilt  of  violating  it.  The  more  they  honor  the  obliga- 
tions and  spirituality  of  this  law,  the  deeper  will  be 
their  impressions  of  their  own  aggravated  criminality, 
and  the  less  embarrassment  will  they  feel  in  approv- 
ing all  its  sanctions.  A  just  view  of  the  law  of  God  is 
fitted  to  produce  the  conviction  that  the  Supreme  Law- 
giver has  established  an  exact  correspondence  between 
sin  and  its  punishment,  and  that  the  decree  which  makes 
misery  the  eternal  heritage  of  the  wicked,  is,  and  ought 
to  be,  irrevocable. 

We  cannot  extend  these  thoughts.  We  shall  be  grate- 
ful if  they  serve  to  meet  the  difficulty  to  which  they  refer, 
and  cast  up  this  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  the  Cross. 
We  shall  be  grateful,  if  they  relieve  any  honest  inquirer 
from  embariassment  on  a  subject  of  deep  practical  interest 
to  true  piety  and  true  hope. 

Let  the  reader  treasure  up  in  his  mind  the  following 
lessons,  if  he  would  not  remain  blind  to  his  own  char- 
acter. Let  him  beware  of  making  light  of  sin.  What 
multitudes  are  there  who  do  this !  There  have  been  those 
who  carry  their  folly  in  this  respect  so  far  as  to  deny  all 
distinction  between  sin  and  holiness,  and  do  all  in  their 
power  to  break  down  all  moral  discriminations.  It  may 
be  expected  of  men  who  say  they  see  no  difference 
between  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong,  that  they 
should  complain  of  the  divine  judgments.  And  what 
multitudes  are  there,  who,  while  they  see  the  preposter- 
ousness  of  such  false  notions  as  this,  yet  look  upon  sin  as 


178  A    STUMBLING  BLOCK    REMOVED. 

a  very  light  matter,  and  a  trifling  evil  !  The  Scriptures 
represent  it  to  be  an  exceedingly  evil  and  bitter  thing — 
the  greatest  evil  that  exists,  or  that  can  exist  in  the  uni- 
verse ;  yet  how  many  look  upon  it  as  scarcely  worth 
regarding,  either  by  God  or  man  !  They  may  in  theory 
deprecate  it  as  they  do  any  other  evil,  and  at  the  same 
time  show  by  their  life  and  conversation,  that  with  them 
it  is  a  matter  of  little  concern.  Multitudes  there  are,  too, 
who  turn  the  whole  subject  of  human  depravity  into  con- 
tempt and  ridicule ;  who  treat  with  levity  that  universal 
apostacy  of  man  under  which  the  whole  creation  groans, 
for  the  rebuke  of  which  God  has  prepared  his  instruments 
of  death,  and  for  which  Jesus  died  on  the  Cross.  Others, 
again,  pretend  not  to  see  their  sins,  and  like  the  children 
of  Israel,  whom  God  charged  with  flagrant  violations  of 
his  law,  assert  their  ignorance,  and  inquire,  with  the 
utmost  temerity,  wherein  they  have  transgressed.  They 
set  at  defiance  all  the  consequences  of  sinning,  bitter  and 
dreadful  as  they  are,  both  in  this  world  and  that  which 
is  to  come,  and  rush  on  headlong  to  destruction.  They 
despise  the  admonitions  and  threatenings  of  God's  word  ; 
and,  as  though  they  could  not  insure  their  final  doom 
with  sufficient  certainty,  wantonly  make  themselves  merry 
with  the  idea  of  eternal  punishment.  "  How  canst  thou 
say,  I  have  not  sinned  ?  See  thy  way  in  the  valley,  and 
know  what  thou  hast  done !"  Well  does  the  inspired 
Preacher  affirm,  "  Fools  make  a  mock  at  sin."  In  the 
opinion  of  men  sin  may  be  a  light  matter,  but  it  is  not  so  in 
the  judgment  of  God.  There  is  no  greater  or  more  dan- 
gerous delusion,  than  to  yield  to  the  impression  that  it  is  a 
slight  offence  to  trample  on  the  commands  of  the  great 
Jehovah.  Never  will  you  be  made  sensible  of  your 
blame-worthiness,  so  long  as  you  have  this  spirit ;  but 
will  go  on  in  sin,  trifling  with  your  iniquity,  till  you 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED.  279 

mourn  at  the  last,  and  say,  "  How  have  I  hated  instruc- 
tion and  despised  reproof!"  This  insensibility  to  the 
ill-desert  of  sin  is  one  of  the  crying  evils  of  the  age  in 
which  we  live,  and  is  a  growing  evil  in  the  minds  of  the 
old  and  the  young.  The  old  become  hardened  in 
iniquity,  and  the  young  rapidly  initiated  in  evil  courses, 
because  they  so  seldom  reflect  on  the  great  evil  of  sinning 
against  God.  It  will  be  a  solemn  hour  when  this  delu- 
sion shall  be  swept  away,  and  you  see  how  great  the 
guilt  is  which  you  have  contracted.  That  hour  must 
come,  either  in  this  or  in  the  future  world.  Should  it 
ever  come  in  this  world,  oh,  how  will  you  feel  that  you 
ought  to  abhor  yourselves,  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes  ! 
Should  it  not  arrive  until  after  you  have  done  with  time, 
it  will  be  such  a  day  as  you  have  little  thought  of.  When 
all  your  sins  are  brought  to  light,  and  the  mask  is  fully 
taken  off — when  your  iniquity  is  exhibited  to  yourselves 
and  to  the  universe — the  rocks  and  the  mountains  may 
fall  upon  you,  but  they  cannot  cover  your  shame,  nor 
hide  you  from  the  face  of  Him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne, 
nor  from  the  presence  and  wrath  of  the  Lamb. 

God,  in  his  word,  everywhere  sets  before  men  their 
sins ;  he  takes  great  pains  to  give  a  right  and  kind 
direction  to  their  thoughts,  and  to  lead  them  to  a  self- 
inspection  that  shall  be  ingenuous  and  faithful.  He 
expostulates  and  pleads  Avith  all  flesh ;  he  admonishes 
them  that  he  will  maintain  this  process,  follow  it  up  to 
conviction,  and  inflict  the  deserved  punishment.  Yet 
they  either  assert  their  innocence,  or  defend  their  cause 
by  impugning  his  punitive  justice.  The  controversy 
between  God  and  wicked  men  is  nowhere  more  obvious, 
than  in  the  single  point  which  relates  to  their  own  ill- 
desert.  God  affirms  that  the  punishment  which  sin 
deserves  is  eternal  death  ;  and  he  will  make  this  affirm- 


180  A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

ation  good,  by  executing  this  penalty  upon  all  who  obey 
not  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Wicked  men 
affirm  that  it  does  not  deserve  such  a  punishment ;  and 
they  are  deeply  interested  in  making-  their  affirmation 
good.  They  have  tried  to  do  so  in  every  age  of  the 
world,  and  are  trying  to  do  so  still.  One  reason  why 
they  are  God's  enemies,  is  that  he  is  so  just.  They  had 
rather  there  would  be  no  God,  than  a  being  of  such 
inflexible,  justice.  They  array  themselves  against  his 
authority,  dispute  his  right  to  govern  them,  endeavor 
to  flee  out  of  his  hands,  exert  all  the  ingenuity  of  their 
reasoning  powers  to  disprove  and  invalidate  the  equity  of 
his  claims ;  and  whenever  they  are  brought  to  despair  of 
this,  their  dissatisfaction  evinces  itself  in  bitter  complaint 
and  murmuring.  They  reply  against  the  Lord,  contend 
with  their  Maker,  and  feel  as  though  they  never  could 
give  up  the  contest.  This  always  has  been  one  of  the 
grounds  of  controversy  between  God  and  rebellious  men. 
God  claims  the  right  thus  to  punish  them,  and  they  deny 
this  right.  God  declares  that  it  is  no  injustice  thus  to 
punish  them,  but  perfect  equity;  and  that  if  he  had 
thus  punished  every  transgressor  he  would  have  done 
him  no  injury.  They,  on  the  other  hand,  insist  that  it 
is  the  height  of  injury  and  injustice.  And  here  God  and 
wicked  men  are  at  issue  :  they  are  at  issue  upon  a  very 
important  point,  and  one  that  involves  the  great  princi- 
ples of  his  government.  If  the  sinner  is  right,  God  is 
wrong.  If  the  sinner  is  right,  all  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  the  Gospel  are  false ;  and  there  is  neither  truth 
nor  importance  in  the  method  of  salvation  which  that 
Gospel  reveals.  If  the  sinner  is  wrong,  his  error  is  a 
great  and  essential  error,  and  his  position  is  not  less  dan- 
gerous and  criminal  than  it  is  false.  In  "visions  of  the 
night,  when  deep  sleep  falleth  upon  men,"  Eliphazonce 


A    STUaiBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED.  Jgl 

heard  a  voice,  saying-,  "  Shall  mortal  man  be  more  just 
than  God?  shall  man  be  more  pme  than  his  Maker  1 
Behold,  he  put  no  trust  in  his  servants,  and  his  angels  he 
charged  with  folly.  How  much  less  in  them  that  dwell 
in  houses  of  clay,  whose  foundation  is  in  the  dust,  which 
are  crushed  before  the  moth !"  Forever  let  it  be  pro- 
claimed, God  is  right,  and  the  sinner  is  wrong ! 

On  no  subject  is  the  radical  difference  between  the  right- 
eous and  the  wicked  more  clearly  evinced,  than  the  one 
we  have  been  considering.  I  do  not  find  an  instance  in 
the  Scriptures  in  which  good  men  do  not  recognize  the 
equity  of  the  sentence  that  condemns  them  to  eternal 
death.  Christians  all  the  world  over  acquiesce  in  the 
rectitude  of  this  penalty,  because  God  has  revealed  it, 
and  they  have  confidence  in  him  that  he  does  and  will 
do  what  is  right ;  and  because  the  more  they  know  of 
themselves  and  of  their  own  personal  wickedness  and  ill- 
desert,  the  more  is  the  conviction  inwrought  in  their  own 
conscious  experience  that  they  deserve  such  a  doom.  It 
is  in  this  conviction  that  they  begin  their  religion  ;  and 
in  this  conviction,  they  hold  on  their  way,  "  ascribing 
righteousness  to  their  Maker,"  and  taking  "shame  and 
confusion  of  face  to  themselves."  In  this  cordial  con- 
viction, good  men  differ  from  all  the  wicked  men  in  the 
world.  It  is  no  part  of  piety  to  contend  with  God's 
justice.  That  controversy  was  terminated  when  the 
proud  heart  of  the  sinner  was  humbled,  and  he  accepted 
the  punishment  of  his  iniquity,  and  submitted  himself  to 
the  righteousness  of  God  as  revealed  in  the  Gospel  of  his 
Son.  The  Christian  once  loved  sin,  but  now  he  hates 
it.  He  once  justified  it,  but  now  he  condemns  it,  and 
just  as  God  condemns  it.  Such  is  not  the  character 
nor  the  experience  of  wicked  men.  They  love  sin 
still,  and  still  justify  it,  and  refuse  to  unite  with  God 


182  A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

in  condemning  it  according  to  its  true  desert.  We 
here  see  one  of  the  great  points  of  difference  between 
him  that  serveth  God,  and  him  that  serveth  him  not. 
This  was  one  of  the  points  of  difference  between  Saul 
at  Tarsus,  and  Paul  at  Rome.  This  was  one  of  the 
points  of  difference  between  the  penitent  and  the  im- 
penitent malefactors  who  himg  on  the  Cross.  This  is 
one  of  the  points  of  difference  between  the.  convinced 
sinner  who  rebels  against  the  condemning  sentence,  and 
the  humbled  sinner  who  approves  it. 

Is  the  reader  among  the  righteous,  or  among  the 
wicked  1  Has  he  this  evidence  of  being  a  child  of  God, 
that  he  sees  and  approves  of  the  sentence  that  dooms  him 
to  eternal  destruction?  Does  he  justify  his  Maker  in 
executing  the  penalty  of  his  holy  law  1  or  does  he  com- 
plain with  the  Jews  spoken  of  by  the  Prophet,  and  say, 
"  Wherefore  hath  the  Lord  pronounced  all  this  evil 
against  us  ?"  Does  he  see  and  feel  that  it  would  be 
right,  perfectly  right,  if  he  were  a  cast-away,  and  should 
suffer  God's  righteous  displeasure  forever  ? 

We  have  been  contemplating  the  grand  obstacle  lohich 
stands  in  the  way  of  the  sinner'' s  repairing  to  the  Cross.  No- 
thing is  more  obvious  than  that  no  man  accepts  the  Gospel 
while  he  has  a  quarrel  with  the  law ;  that  no  man  can 
humbly  receive  the  grace  of  God,  so  long  as  he  cavils  at 
his  justice  ;  that  no  man  can  feel  his  need  of  Christ  and 
repair  to  him  for  salvation,  until  he  knows  and  feels  that 
he  deserves  the  punishment  from  which  Christ  came  to 
deliver.  Some  men  feel  this  more  deeply  than  others ; 
but  all  must  feel  it  in  order  to  accept  the  Gospel.  Some 
have  a  greater  sense  of  danger  than  of  guilt ;  and  some 
have  a  greater  sense  of  guilt  than  of  clanger.  But  all 
who  accept  of  Christ  feel  their  need  of  him;  and  all  who 
feel  their  need  of  him,  feel  their  exposure  to  God's  right- 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED.  jgS 

eous  and  eternal  indignation  without  him.  It  is  just  as 
difficult  for  an  unconverted  man  to  love  the  grace  of  God 
as  to  approve  his  j  ustice ;  for  he  cannot  do  the  former 
until  he  does  the  latter.  And  here  lies  the  grand  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  his  accepting  the  Gospel.  The  Gospel 
must  be  forever  rejected,  so  long  as  men  hate  and  op- 
pose either  the  precept  or  the  penalty  of  the  law.  They 
will  complain  of  difficulty  in  accepting  it — they  will 
resolve  and  re-resolve — they  will  postpone  and  procrasti- 
nate— and  the  Cross  of  Christ  will  be  a  "  stone  of  stum- 
bling and  a  rock  of  offence" — so  long  as  they  stumble  at 
the  law.  How  many  are  there  who  feel  that  they  can- 
not accept  the  Gospel,  because  they  cannot  feel  that  they 
justly  deserve  eternal  death?  This  is  no  theoretical 
difficulty,  but  one  of  every-day  occurrence.  It  meets  the 
parent  in  his  interviews  with  his  child  ;  it  meets  the  pas- 
tor in  his  associations  with  his  people  ;  it  meets  the  moral 
sinner  in  his  reliance  upon  his  morality,  the  self-righteous 
sinner  in  his  reliance  upon  his  self-righteousness,  the 
awakened  sinner  in  his  solemnity,  and  the  convinced 
and  unhumbled  sinner  in  his  contest  with  the  divine  rec- 
titude and  justice.  It  is  an  obstacle  that  is  fatal  to  accept- 
ance of  the  Gospel,  so  long  as  it  lasts.  And  why — why 
should  it  last  an  hour  ?  Where  is  your  memory,  and 
what  has  become  of  your  conscience,  that  you  doubt  if 
God  is  clear  when  he  speaks,  and  just  when  he  judges  1 
Oh,  if  all  your  sins  were  searched  out ;  if  they  were  all 
exhibited  in  their  number  and  enormity  ;  if  he  who  counts 
the  hairs  of  your  head  and  the  sands  on  the  shore,  should 
set  them  all  before  you ;  it  would  be  only  to  "  torment  you 
before  the  time."  It  is  true,  they  have  not  yet  brought  you 
to  the  place  of  the  damned  ;  but  I  pray  you  to  see  what 
they  are  doing,  and  awake  to  a  sense  of  their  criminality 
and  ill-desert.      Nothing  is  more  burdensome,  I  know, 


184  A    STTOIBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED. 

and  nothing  more  miserable,  than  a  conscience  enlight- 
ened by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  distressed  by  a  view  of 
sin.  And  this  is  the  reason  why  men  contend  so  bitterly 
against  the  conviction,  and  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and 
why  so  many  never  feel  their  need  of  Christ,  and  never 
accept  his  healing  salvation.  But  resist  it  not.  Welcome 
it — welcome  it  all.  Pray  for  it.  Supplicate  the  light  of 
divine  truth  and  grace  to  shine  into  your  minds,  to  pene- 
trate your  conscience,  and  to  lay  open  your  bosom  to 
the  powerful  impression  that  you  are  lost  and  undone. 
This  insensibility  to  sin  and  ill-desert  is  confined  to  our 
lost  race,  and  our  guilty  world.  You  could  not  persist  in 
it,  but  for  the  divine  forbearance  and  long-suffering.  It 
will  all  leave  3^ou  when  you  come  to  die,  and  stand  before 
your  Judge.  Not  a  vestige  of  it  will  then  be  found.  No 
state  of  mind  will  be  more  thoroughly  cured  hereafter 
than  this ;  and  there  is  no  state  of  mind,  the  remembrance 
of  which  will  probably  add  deeper  anguish  to  the  sin- 
ner's everlasting  woes 

I  conclude  this  long  chapter  with  the  remark,  that  these 
claims  of  God's  justice  emphatically  recommend  the  glori- 
ous Gospel  of  the  ever-blessed  God,  and  the  Cross  of  his 
dear  Son,  If  you  are  conscious  that  you  are  a  sinner, 
sensible  that  you  are  justly  condemned,  to  you  I  have  an 
errand  that  ought  to  be  welcome.  You  have  heard  it  a 
thousand  times,  and  made  light  of  it ;  but  it  was  because 
you  felt  not  that  interest  in  it  which  you  now  feel.  I 
have  not  a  word  to  utter  against  the  law  which  condemns 
you.  It  condemns  me  as  well  as  you.  It  condemns  us 
all.  I  dare  not  impugn  it.  I  would  not  alter  it  by  a 
wish.  It  is  upon  this  firm  basis  of  "justice  and  jvidg- 
ment,"  which  are  "the  habitation  of  his  throne,"  that 
God,  in  his  ineffable  wisdom,  has  built  that  blessed  su- 
perstructure   of    grace   and   mercy,  which   shows  how 


A    STUMBLING-BLOCK    REMOVED.  135 

guilty,  ill-deserving  ?na;i  can  he  just  with  God,  and  how 
God  can  he  just  in  rescuing  man  from  his  deserved  doom. 
The  weight  of  sin  is  taken  off  from  you,  and  in  the  eye 
of  the  law  transferred  to  the  mighty  Sufferer  on  Calvary. 
It  is  for  you  but  to  accept  the  atonement  which  he  has 
made,  and  the  law  is  satisfied.  Are  not  these  glad  tidings — 
glad  tidings  of  great  joy  ?  Oh,  I  will  cheerfully  take 
hold  of  my  ill-desert,  especially  if,  by  so  doing,  I  may 
take  hold  of  Christ.  Here  is  no  ground  for  despair ; 
here  are  grace,  mercy  and  peace  from  God  the  Father 
and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, — and  to  you,  who  deserve  to 
die !  Rejected,  they  do  but  augment  the  righteous  penalty 
which  you  deserve  already  :  accepted,  there  is  a  ransom 
from  the  curse,  and  the  seal  and  pledge  of  acceptance 
with  God.  It  remains  for  you  to  choose  whether  you 
will  be  indebted  to  law  and  justice  still,  and  pay  the 
penalty,  and  exhaust  the  cup  of  divine  indignation ;  or 
gratefully  consent  to  be  indebted  to  Christ,  and  accept 
the  ransom  he  has  paid.  If  you  pay  the  debt  yourself, 
will  it  be  ^^hetter  paid  ?" 


CHAPTER   XI. 

THE    GREATNESS    OF    SIN    NO    OBSTACLE    TO    SALVATION  BY 
THE     CROSS. 

Is  the  fact,  that  a  man  is  a  great  sinner,  any  reason 
Avhy  he  may  not  and  should  not  be  a  partaker  of  the  sal- 
vation which  is  revealed  by  the  Cross  of  Christ?  Some 
of  us  have  a  deep  interest  in  this  question,  because  some 
of  us,  when  the  book  of  God's  remembrance  shall  be 
opened,  will  be  seen  to  be  among  the  greatest  sinners. 
"  Some  sins  in  themselves,  and  by  reason  of  their  several 
aggravations,  are  more  heinous  in  the  sight  of  God  than 
others."  There  are  those  who  are  vile,  exceedingly  de- 
praved by  sin,  and  openly  and  flagitiously  wicked  in  the 
sight  of  God  and  the  world.  There  are  also  those  who, 
though  not  vile  in  the  sight  of  the  world,  are  vile  in  their 
own  eyes,  and  whose  habits  of  sinning,  though  not 
known  to  men,  fill  their  own  bosoms  with  reproach  and 
shame,  and  not  unfrequently  with  despair.  And  there 
are  not  wanting  those,  who  are  neither  vile  in  their  own 
eyes,  nor  in  the  view  of  their  fellow-men,  who  are  yet 
vile  in  the  eyes  of  God,  and  whose  wickedness  is  so 
masked  and  veiled  under  the  forms  of  serious  godliness, 
or  grave  morality,  that  its  enormity  is  "  naked  and  open 
only  to  the  eyes  of  him  with  whom  they  have  to  do."  Is 
there  relief  in  the  Cross  of  Christ  for  such  sinners  as  these  1 
does  it  open  the  door  of  hope  to  them  %  or  are  the  gates 
of  the  Heavenly  City  forever  shut  against  them,  so  that 


THE    GREATNESS    OF    SIN    NO    OBSTACLE  137 

of  all  the  multitudes  who  enter  within  its  walls,  not  one 
such  grievous  offender  shall  be  found?  The  answer 
which  the  Gospel  gives  to  this  question  is  truly  a  wonder- 
ful answer.  Hear  it,  0  earth  !  "0  earth,  earth,  earth, 
hear  the  word  of  the  Lord!"  Glad  tidings  is  it  of  great 
joy  to  all  people.  It  is,  that  ''  where  sin  abounds,  grace 
doth  much  more  abound."  It  is  no  fiction,  no  dream  of 
a  disturbed  and  enthusiastic  imagination.  "  It  is  a  faith- 
ful saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus 
came  into  the  world  to  save  the  chief  of  sinners."  It  is, 
that  sins  of  the  highest  enormity  and  deepest  die  do  not 
exceed  the  elficacy  of  atoning  blood.  It  is,  that  men 
whose  wickedness  is  so  flagrant  that  it  would  seem  the 
most  daring  presumption,  the  most  mortal  effrontery,  for 
them  to  hope  for  salvation,  may  find  it  at  the  Cross. 
"  This  is  not  the  manner  of  man,  0  Lord  God." 

Little  as  these  thoughts  may  accord  with  our  self- 
righteous  notions,  we  shall  find  them  distinctly  and  most 
abundantly  revealed  in  the  word  of  God.  The  method 
of  salvation  devised  for  men  is  very  different  from  that 
which  men  would  fain  devise  for  themselves.  Men  of  a 
comparatively  harmless  and  inoffensive  life,  the  self-com- 
placent moralist,  and  the  punctual  and  exact  observer  of 
all  the  outward  forms  of  religion,  rest  their  hopes  on  some- 
thing short  of  the  great  work  of  Jesus  Christ.  If  you 
could  enter  into  the  secret  operations  of  their  own  minds, 
you  would  find  great  multitudes  who  have  hope  toward 
God  because  they  are  not  so  bad  as  others ;  or,  which  is 
the  more  true  account  of  the  matter,  because  they  are 
better  than  other  men.  A  reliance  on  some  less  degree 
of  demerit,  is  the  same  thing  with  reliance  on  a  greater 
degree  of  merit  in  the  sinner.  This  whole  moral  ar- 
rangement, in  every  shape  and  form,  is  based  upon  the 
single  principle  of  justification  by  the  deeds  of  the  law. 


188  THE    GREATNESS    OF    SIN    NO    OBSTACLE 

The  salvation  devised  in  the  counsels  of  heaven  is  a  very- 
different  method  of  salvation  from  this.  Conscience 
unites  with  the  Cross  in  teaching  us,  that  the  man  who 
would  find  acceptance  with  God  by  his  own  well-doing, 
may  not  be  an  offender  even  "  in  one  point."  His  obe- 
dience must  be  sinless  ;  he  must  produce  a  perfect  right- 
eousness, or  be  "  weighed  in  the  balances  and  found 
wanting."  When  it  is  testified  to  us,  on  the  truth  of  him 
who  cannot  lie,  that  there  is  a  surety  accepted  by  God, 
and  a  satisfaction  rendered  by  that  surety  which  is  apart 
from  any  obedience  of  ours,  we  have  the  assurance  that 
the  righteousness  upon  which  we  are  accepted  regards  us 
as  worthless.  When  it  is  testified  to  us  that  "  grace 
reigns,  through  righteousness,  unto  eternal  life,  by  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord,"  we  have  the  assurance  that,  as  there  is 
no  hope  for  an  individual  of  the  race  because  his  sins  are 
few  and  small,  so  is  there  not  an  individual  of  the  race 
who  is  excluded  from  hope  because  his  sins  are  many  and 
great.  If  his  righteousness  is  not  of  his  own,  but  of 
God's  providing — if  it  is  not  of  his  own  working,  but  of 
God's  imputing — then,  at  the  moment  of  his  believing  in 
Jesus  Christ,  has  he  the  full  remission  of  his  sins,  and  a 
title  to  eternal  life,  whether  his  iniquities  are  few  or 
many,  small  or  great.  Save  upon  these  terms,  there  is 
no  hope  for  the  least  sinner  ;  while,  upon  such  terms  as 
these,  God  will  "  abundantly  pardon  "  the  greatest.  He 
whose  infinite  mind  alone  estimates  the  turpitude,  the 
malignity,  the  pollution,  the  thanklessness  of  all  sin,  and 
who  alone  is  capable  of  measuring  the  height,  and  length, 
and  breadth,  and  depth  of  it,  allows  no  reserves  and  no 
limitations  to  be  imposed  on  the  all-sufficiency  of  his  re- 
demption by  the  number  and  greatness  of  man's  trans- 
gressions. The  blood  of  sprinkling  covers  the  whole 
ground  of  his  disobedience,  and  cleanses  its  foulest  stains. 


TO  SALVATION  BY  THE  CROSS.        jgg 

"  Though  his  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  white  as 
snow ;  though  they  be  red  like  crimson,  they  shall  be  as 
wool." 

The  great  God  is  infinite.  Not  more  true  is  it  that  his 
wisdom  and  power  are  infinite,  than  that  his  mercy  is 
infinite.  Everything  about  it  is  infinite.  It  proceeds 
from  infinite  Being,  flows  through  the  medium  of  an 
infinite  sacrifice,  surmounts  obstacles  that  are  infinite, 
and  addresses  itself  to  those  who  are  infinitely  unworthy 
and  ill-deserving.  Unlike  the  cold  and  inactive  com- 
passion of  men,  it  acts  itself  out  in  ways  best  fitted  to 
gratify  and  express  its  plenitude  and  tenderness.  This 
is  its  great  motive  and  impulse.  It  goes  after  the  lost 
sheep ;  it  becomes  familiar  with  the  abodes  of  guilt 
and  shame ;  it  binds  up  the  broken-hearted ;  it  pro- 
claims liberty  to  those  who,  from  the  deepest  dungeon 
and  the  most  dreary  darkness,  are  waiting  the  hour  of 
their  execution.  Compassion  and  tenderness  here  find 
something  to  interest  them.  "  The  greater  the  sin,  the 
greater  the  misery  and  helplessness."  The  greater  the 
misery  and  helplessness,  the  stronger,  the  more  resistless 
the  appeal  to  God's  tender  mercies.  Never  do  those 
mercies  more  truly  consult  their  own  intrinsic  tenderness, 
and  never  do  they  more  truly  act  in  keeping  with  their 
own  heavenly  nature,  than  when  their  richest  bounty  is 
lavished  on  the  greatest  sinners.  It  is  not  to  "  call  the 
righteous  "  that  the  Saviour  came,  but  "  sinners  to  repent- 
ance." The  tenderest  expostulations  of  the  divine  mercy 
are  not  uttered  over  the  boasting  Pharisee,  but  over  the 
corrupted  and  dishonest  publican  ;  over  the  degraded  and 
ruined  ;  over  the  pitiable  demoniac  that  dwelt  among  the 
tombs ;  and  over  idolatrous  Ephraim,  abandoned  to  his 
Paganism,  wedded  to  his  lusts,  and  offering  sacrifice  to 
devils  and  not  to  God.   It  is  over  these,  and  such  as  these, 


190  THE    GREATNESS    OF    SIN    NO    OBSTACLE 

that  the  expostulation  has  so  often  been  poured  forth  : 
"How  shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim?  how  shall  I  de- 
liver thee,  Israel  7  how  shall  I  set  thee  as  Admah  1  how 
shall  I  make  thee  as  Zeboun  1  My  heart  is  turned  within 
me ;  my  repentings  are  kindled  together  ;  for  I  am  God 
and  not  man !" 

Human  charities  are  for  the  most  part  exhausted  on 
virtuous  suffering.  Misery,  when  self-procured  and  the 
fruit  of  crime,  is  least  pitied  by  men.  But  such  is  not 
the  history  of  the  divine  compassion.  "  O  Israel,  thou 
hast  destroyed  thyself,  but  in  me  is  thy  help  !"  Heavenly 
mercy  has  robes  for  the  chilled  and  emaciated  limbs  of 
guilt  and  ignominy.  'The  heavenly  Physician  comes 
with  a  remedy  for  the  dying,  even  though  they  have 
destroyed  themselves.  He  rescues  the  drowning  sinner, 
though  he  plunged  himself  into  the  deep  waters.  The 
poisoned  arrow  which  the  headlong  and  reckless  trans- 
gressor had  plunged  into  his  own  bosom,  he  draws  gently 
forth,  and  bids  him  live.  These  are  the  deeds  of  mercy 
to  which  the  mercy  of  heaven  is  most  inclined,  and,  were 
there  no  other  considerations  to  restrain  it,  the  very  deeds 
in  which  it  would  most  abound.  If  there  be  one  sinner 
in  the  world  greater  than  another — one  who  is  of  all 
others  "  the  farthest  from  God  and  the  nearest  to  hell," 
and  who,  if  not  rescued,  will  be  the  most  miserable  of  the 
race  to  all  eternity — other  things  being  equal,  that  is  the 
sinner  in  whom  the  mercy  of  the  Cross  takes  the  deepest 
interest,  over  whom  it  weeps  most  in  secret  places,  and 
whom,  by  every  means  and  every  motive,  it  would  most 
encourage  and  allure. 

God  teaches  men  by  facts.  Ordinary  minds,  and  in- 
deed all  minds,  are  better  taught  by  facts  than  general 
principles  or  argument.  When  we  look  into  the  Bible, 
we  not  only  see  the  calls  and  invitations  of  the  Cross 


TO    SALVATION    BY    THE    CROSS.  jg^ 

extended  to  men  of  every  description  of  character,  but 
learn  that  very  many  who  were  justly  numbered  among 
the  vilest,  have  actually  been  brought  to  repentance, 
and  found  mercy.  The  Scriptures  intentionally  record 
this  fact,  and  the  sacred  writers  take  pleasure  in  dwelling 
upon  it.  They  furnish  the  names  and  history  of  not 
a  few  of  the  vilest  ever  known  among  the  genera- 
tions of  men,  who  have  found  pardon  and  peace,  and 
who  washed  their  robes  and  made'  them  white  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb.  Manasseh  and  Saul  of  Tarsus — the 
former  the  seducer  of  his  nation  into  idolatry,  and  by  his 
merciless  and  cruel  sword  filling  the  land  with  the  blood 
of  the  innocent,  and  the  latter  a  bold  blasphemer  and 
relentless  persecuter  of  the  church  of  God — were  made 
monuments  of  redeeming  mercy.  "  This  man  receiveth 
sinners,  and  eateth  with  them,"  was  the  proverbial  re- 
proach which  his  enemies  cast  upon  the  Son  of  God. 
Publicans  and  harlots  attended  on  his  ministry,  and  found 
cleansing  in  his  blood.  Degenerate  and  apostate  Jeru- 
salem, whose  "  very  temple  was  turned  into  a  slaughter- 
house of  prophets  and  holy  men,"  and  whose  inhabit- 
ants were  the  ringleaders  of  that  fearful  mob  that 
crucified  the  Lord  of  Glory,  was  the  spot  selected,  above 
all  others,  where  the  first  wonders  of  the  divine  mercy 
were  unfolded,  and  where  thousands  became  obedient  to 
the  faith.  The  churches  of  Ephesus,  Corinth  and  Rome, 
were  made  up  of  men  who  were  once  fornicators,  adulte- 
rers, idolators,  effeminate,  abusers  of  themselves  with 
mankind,  thieves,  drunkards,  revilers  and  extortioners  ;" 
but  they  were  "  washed,  they  were  sanctified,  they  were 
justified,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  by  the 
Spirit  of  our  God."  The  book  of  Providence  records 
facts  like  these  on  every  page  of  this  world's  history. 
On  the  deck  of  yonder   slave-ship,  was  once  a  foul- 


192  THE    GREATNESS    OF    SIN    NO    OBSTACLE 

mouthed,  profane  young  man,  who  knew  no  law  but  his 
guihy  passions,  and  had  no  object  but  gain.  That  young 
man  was  John  Mew  ton,  afterwards  the  distinguished  friend 
of  God  and  his  race,  the  humble  follower  and  minister  of 
Christ,  and  the  chosen  comforter  of  his  people.  In  yonder 
shop  was  a  low-bred  man,  who  says  of  himself,  that 
"  from  a  child  he  had  few  equals  for  cursing,  swearing, 
lying,  and  blaspheming  the  holy  name  of  God,"  and 
who  was,  to  a  mournful  extent,  the  victim  of  debasing 
lusts  and  the  corrupter  of  his  fellow-men.  It  was  no 
other  than  he  whose  "  Grace  Abounding"  and  "  Pilgrim's 
Progress  "  have  lighted  up  the  wilderness  to  so  many 
travelers  toward  the  celestial  city.  What  the  Cross  was 
to  these,  it  has  been  to  thousands  and  thousands  like 
them.  Great  sinners  there  are  in  hell,  but  sinners  as 
great,  in  great  numbers,  are  also  found  in  heaven  ;  and 
while  the  one  show  forth  the  glories  of  the  divine  justice, 
the  other  are  rivals  in  the  blessed  work  of  showing  forth 
their  obligations  to  unsearchable  grace.  The  self-right- 
eous may  murmur,  and  express  their  envy ;  they  may 
cast  reproach  upon  that  grace  which  they  reject,  and 
which  so  many  viler  than  they  humbly  and  thankfully 
receive ;  while  it  still  remains  a  truth,  that  the  greatest 
of  sinners  may  find  salvation  in  the  Cross.  They  are  not 
the  amiable  and  the  moral  only,  to  whom  this  grace  is 
extended,  but  the  wayward  and  vicious.  It  is  not  to  the 
youthful  sinner  only,  and  before  his  wickedness  has 
become  matured  by  age,  and  aggravated  by  abused  privi- 
leges, but  to  the  ''  hoary  scalp  "  of  him  who  stops  in 
his  mad  career,  even  on  the  outer  verge  of  human  life. 
It  is  not  to  the  new-born  babe  alone,  but  to  the  dying 
thief. 

When  the  redeemed  reach  the  shores  of  their  long- 
looked-for   eternity,   the  song   they  will  sing  will   be. 


TO    SALVATION    BY    THE    CROSS.  jgg 

"  Unto  liiin  that  loved  us  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in 
his  own  blood."  Great  and  everlasting-  honors  will  ac- 
crue to  him  for  his  love  to  guilty  men,  and  for  that  won- 
derful stoop  of  condescension  which  brought  him  down 
from  heaven  to  save  them  from  their  sins.  No  angelic 
song  will  ever  equal  this  "  new  song"  from  the  lips  of 
Christ's  redeemed.  And  many  a  tongue  will  utter  it 
which  once  cursed  him ;  and  many  a  voice  will  swell  its 
harmony  which  once  reveled  in  debasing  wickedness, 
and  was  heard  louder  than  its  compeers  amid  scenes  of 
brutal  dissipation. 

This  is  no  doubt  among  the  reasons  why  there  is 
mercy  for  the  greatest  sinner.  The  exalted  Saviour  pro- 
fesses to  be  "  mighty  to  save"—"  able  to  save  all  that 
come  unto  God  by  him."  To  prove  his  sufficiency,  and 
make  it  known,  he  saves  the  vilest  and  most  hopeless. 
No  matter  how  black  the  night  of  ignorance,  or  how 
strong  the  bonds  of  sin,  or  how  damning  the  guilt;  he 
illuminates  the  darkness,  breaks  the  bondage,  and  for  all 
the  guilt  his  blood  atones.  Rigorous  as  are  the  claims 
of  law  and  justice,  he  satisfies  them.  Deep  and  fresh  as 
are  the  wounds  in  the  bleeding  conscience,  he  staunches 
them.  Be  the  spiritual  maladies  ever  so  desperate  and 
incurable,  he  has  a  remedy  for  them.  And  while  he 
thus  demonstrates  his  title  to  the  honors  he  receives,  and 
"  in  the  ages  to  come  shows  forth  the  exceeding  riches  of 
his  grace,"  he  at  the  same  time  demonstrates  the  all-suffi- 
ciency in  which  he  glories.  Many  a  great  sinner,  in  the 
last  stage  of  a  distressing  conviction  has  rested  his  plea  at 
the  throne  of  grace  on  this  one  argument.  It  was  his  only 
hope.  And  many  an  offending  child  of  God,  too,  has 
here  rested  his  plea  for  the  restored  light  of  God's  coun- 
tenance, which  he  had  lost  by  his  wickedness.  Not  un- 
like this,  was  the  argument  of  the  Psalmist,  when, 
9 


194  THE    GREATNESS    OF    SIN    NO    OBSTACLE 

Stained  as  his  hands  were  with  the  double  crime  of  adul- 
tery and  murder,  he  ventured  to  say,  "  For  thy  name's 
sake,  0  Lord,  pardon  ray  iniquity ,/or  it  is  great.''^  Strange 
argument  for  pardon, but  as  effective  as  it  is  strange !  There 
is  amazing  power  and  grace  in  saving  the  viler  sort  of 
men,  because  there  is  everything  to  oppose  and  overcome. 
It  is  not  always  safe  to  rouse  the  tiger  in  his  lair.  In  the 
language  of  Bunyan,  "  Satan  is  loth  to  part  with  a  great 
sinner,"  and  when  his  deliverance  is  accomplished,  it  is 
an  emphatic  triumph  of  the  Omnipotent  Deliverer.  Just 
as  the  sun  shows  not  his  power  so  much  by  shining  across 
the  clear  sky,  as  by  dissipating  the  thick  and  lowering 
storm,  so  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  never  rises  so  sensibly 
with  healing  in  his  beams,  as  when  he  scatters  the  black- 
ening clouds,  and  arrests  the  tempest  that  is  about  to  fall. 
The  grace  that  reigns  by  the  Cross,  is  never  so  gracious  as 
when  it  holds  back  the  sword  of  justice  from  the  most 
vile  and  Avorthless,  and  rescues  its  victim  as  a  "  brand 
plucked  out  of  the  fire."  He  who  left  Pharaoh  an  uncon- 
verted man,  and  in  his  rightful  and  adorable  sovereignty 
hardened  his  heart,  that  "  his  name  might  be  known  in 
all  the  earth,"  often,  to  make  his  great  name  known, 
takes  the  heart  of  stone  away  from  the  most  obdurate 
and  hardened  of  our  race,  "  that  it  may  turn  to  him  for  a 
name  of  joy,  and  a  praise  and  an  honor  before  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth." 

Another  end  to  be  answered  by  such  dispensations  of 
divine  grace,  is  to  afford  encouragement  to  all  men,  with- 
out exception,  to  come  to  Jesus  Christ.  If  the  greatest 
sinners  may  be  saved,  none  may  despair.  If  there  be 
grace  for  the  worst  who  come  to  Jesus,  then  is  there  suf- 
ficient for  all.  The  spell  of  the  great  deceiver  is  broken, 
and  he  may  no  longer  hold  men  in  bondage  by  the  fiend- 
like suggestion,  that  they  are  beyond  the  reach  of  mercy. 


TO  SALVATION  BY  THE  CROSS.        jgg 

By  bringing  so  many  of  the  most  obdurate  and  guilty  to 
the  Cross,  God  would  have  the  world  distinctly  under- 
stand that  there  is  no  ground  and  no  room  for  discour- 
agement.    No  man  may  say  that  his  sins  are  too  great 
to  be  forgiven.     But  for  what  God  has  said  and  done  in 
the  acceptance  of  great  sinners,  thousands  who  have,  on 
this  account,  been  encouraged  to  seek  religion  and  come 
to   Christ,   never  would  have  dared  to  approach  him. 
When  we  hear  such  a  man  as  Saul  of  Tarsus  say,  "  It  is 
a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that 
Christ   Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  of 
whom  I  AM  CHIEF ;"  which  of  us  does  not  feel  the  great- 
est encouragement  to  repair  to  the  Cross?     The  writer 
will  not  easily  forget  the  impression  which  the  following 
sentence  from  the  forcible  writer  to  whom  he  just  now 
referred,  once  made  on  his  own  mind:    "When  one 
great  sinner  finds  mercy,  another  great   sinner   is   en- 
couraged to  hope   that  he  may  find    mercy  also."     It 
is  a  simple  thought ;    but   there    are   states  of  mind  in 
which   it  is  unutterably  precious.     The  great  mass  of 
awakened  and  convinced  sinners  would  be  utterly  dis- 
couraged by  a  view  of  their  own  ignorance,  weakness, 
darkness  and  wickedness,  were  it  not  for  just  such  facts 
and  assurances  as  these.     But  who  shall  be  depressed, 
when  he  looks  at  the  long  catalogue  of  vile  and  atro- 
cious offenders,  from  Adam  down  to  the  present  hour ! 
"  Oh  !  I  am  a  reprobate.     The  measure  of  my  iniquity  is 
full.     I  am  just  fit  for  eternal  burnings.     It  is  not  possi- 
ble there  should  be  hope  for  such  a  sinner  !"     Who  is  it 
that  says  this  1     It  sounds  like  a  voice  from  the  caverns 
of  despair,  rather  than  from  this  world  of  mercy  where 
.Jesus  wept  and  died.    And  who  is  it  that  is  the  prompter 
to  such  despondency  ?     It  is  some  dark  spirit  of  the  pit. 
It  is  not  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  it  is  not  the  Saviour  of  men ; 


196  THE    GREATNESS    OF    SIN    NO    OBSTACLE 

it  is  not  the  Bible  ;  nor  is  it  the  prompting  of  those  mul- 
tiplied proofs  of  the  power  of  grace  with  which  heaven 
has  been  filled  from  our  apostate  world.  God  does  not 
save  men  from  tenderness  to  their  own  souls  merely,  but 
that,  through  his  mercy  to  them,  others  may  also  find 
mercy.  Eternity  alone  can  reveal  the  number  of  those 
who  have  been  kept  from  sinking  into  despair,  and  into 
hell  itself,  by  those  narratives  of  conversion  which  have 
abounded  in  this  land  within  the  past  twenty  years.  If 
Christ  "  had  rather  save  than  damn  "  that  poor  drunkard, 
that  vile  debauchee,  that  hardened  infidel,  that  son  of 
godly  parents  who  has  become  a  very  maniac  in  wicked- 
ness, and  every  one  of  these  is  now  hoping  in  his  mercy, 
and  adorning  that  hope  by  a  well-ordered  life  and  deport- 
ment ;  what  encouragement  is  there  for  me — for  you — 
for  all!  Never  was  a  truth  more  fitted  to  the  condition 
of  our  lost  world  than  this.  Oh,  the  unspeakable  fullness, 
and  riches,  and  sovereignty  of  grace  in  the  Cross !  "What 
can  the  guilty  sinner  want  more  1  Not  until  a  voice  from 
heaven,  calling  him  by  name,  and  foretelling  his  awful 
doom — no,  not  until  he  has  passed  the  regions  of  this 
world  of  hope,  and  actually  made  his  bed  in  hell,  may 
he  despair  of  mercy.  Tell  me  where  the  vilest  sinner  is 
to  be  found  that  dwells  on  God's  footstool ;  conduct  me 
to  his  abode  of  wickedness  and  gloom ;  and  if  it  be 
anywhere  this  side  the  grave,  I  would  assure  him  in 
God's  name,  that  he  who  was  lifted  up  from  the  earth 
came  to  save  just  such  sinners  as  he.  Question  not  the 
truth  of  God.  Limit  not  the  infinitude  of  his  mercy. 
Distrust  not  his  omnipotent  power.  Reject  not  his  only 
Son.  He  is  the  sinner's  friend,  and  his  last  hope.  His 
language  is,  "  Let  him  that  heareth  come  ;  let  him  that 
thirsteth  come ;  and  whosoever  will,  let  him  take  the 
water  of  life  freely." 


TO    SALVATION    BY    THE    CROSS. 


197 


There  is  one  most  beautiful   feature  in  this  arrange- 
ment of   the  divine  mercy :  it  is,  the  reaction  which  it 
exerts    upon  the    mind    of    the   saved   sinner   himself. 
"  Simon,"  said  our  Divine  Lord,   "  I  have  somew^hat  to 
say  unto  thee.     There  was  a  certain  creditor  which  had 
two  debtors  :  the  one  owed  five  hundred  pence,  the  other 
fifty.     And  when  they  had  nothing  to  pay,  he  frankly 
forgave  them  both.     Tell  me,  therefore,  which  of  them 
will  love  him  most.    Simon  answered  and  said,  I  suppose 
that  he  to  whom  he  forgave  most.     And  he  said  unto 
him.    Thou  hast  rightly  judged.''''     Great  sinners    who 
have  found  mercy  never  forget  the  love  of  Christ.    They 
more  usually  have  deeper  and  more  pungent  convictions 
of  conscience  and  of  sin,  both  before  their  conversion  and 
afterwards,  than  other  men,  and  are  very  apt  to  carry 
these  convictions  through  all  their  subsequent  life,  and 
with  these  a  befitting  and  corresponding  sense  of  God's 
wonderful  love  and  mercy.     David's  convictions  of  his 
great  sins,  as  recorded  in  the  fifty-first  Psalm,  were  of 
this   kind  ;    and   when  he  speaks    of  God's  redeeming 
mercy,  his  language   partakes  of  the  same  strong  and 
deep  feeling.     "  He  brought  me  up  out  of  an  horrible  pit, 
out  of  the  miry  clay,  and  set  my  feet  upon  a  rock,  and 
established  my  goings.     And  he  hath  put  a  new  song 
in  my  mouth,  even  praise  to  our  God.     Many,   0  Lord 
my  God,  are  thy  wonderful  works  which  thou  hast  done, 
and  thy  thoughts  which  are  to  us-ward ;  they  cannot  be 
reckoned  up  in  order  unto  thee :  if  I  would  declare  and 
speak  of  them,  they  are  more  than  can  be  numbered." 
Paul's  convictions  were  also  of  the  same  powerful  and 
overwhelming  character.     They  prostrated  him  on  the 
ground ;  shook  his  whole  frame,  and  produced  such  in- 
ternal conflict  and  agitation,  that  when  he  found  peace 
and  joy  in  believing,  his  love  was  as  ardent  as  his  con- 


198  THE    GREATNESS    OF    SIN    NO    OBSTACLE 

victions  had  been  overpowering.  Nothing  cooled  the 
fervor  of  his  grateful  attachment.  The  sacred  flame  that 
was  kindled  on  his  way  to  Damascus,  burned  brighter 
and  brighter,  throngh  darkness,  through  trial,  through 
the  floods  and  through  the  flames,  till  it  rose  pure  from 
the  scaffold  where  he  received  the  martyr's  crown,  and 
whence  his  spirit  ascended  to  receive  the  crown  that 
fadeth  not  away.  Ungrateful  as  the  heart  of  man  na- 
turally is,  when  subdued  by  grace  it  is  not  insensible 
to  the  love  of  the  Cross.  "  To  whom  much  is  forgiven, 
the  same  loveth  much ;  but  to  Avhom  little  is  forgiven, 
the  same  loveth  little."  Show  me  a  man  in  whom  the 
singleness  of  purpose  which  marked  the  character  of 
Paul  is  manifest,  and  in  whose  whole  life  is  discoverable 
his  fixedness  of  aim,  his  all-absorbing  consecration,  his 
growing  resolution  and  activity — superior  to  discourage- 
ment and  undaunted  by  enemies,  and  never  relinquish- 
ing its  object  till  he  has  lost  the  power  of  exertion — and 
I  will  show  you  the  man  who,  with  the  buoyant  hopes 
of  a  Christian,  was  once  a  great  sinner.  The  love  of 
Christ  constrains  him,  as  it  constrained  the  great  Apostle, 
and  with  him  he  can  say,  "  Of  sinners  I  am  the  chief," 
— "By  the  grace  of  God,  I  am  what  I  am!"  Who 
washed  the  Saviour's  feet  with  her  tears,  and  wiped  them 
with  the  hair  of  her  head  ?  It  was  the  Mary  who  loved 
much,  because  she  had  much  forgiven.  What  single 
church  in  the  world  was  ever  so  distinguished  for  its 
graces  and  its  conduct,  and  the  light  of  which  shone  so 
brightly,  and  so  long,  as.  the  first  Christian  Church  that 
was  gathered  at  Jerusalem?  And  this  church  was 
composed  of  persons  who  had  been  preeminently  vile, 
and  who  had  "  killed  the  Prince  of  life."  They  were 
what  Bunyan  calls  "Jerusalem  sinners."  Great  sin- 
ners, when  once  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  are 


TO    SALVATION    BY    THE    GROSS.  199 

for  ihe  most  part  the  most  sliining  examples  of  piety,  and 
stand  out  before  the  world  for  the  instruction  and  comfort 
of  those  who  fear  God  and  love  his  Son.  Such  instances 
of  conversion  in  a  family,  in  a  congregation,  or  in  a  town, 
are  "  monuments  and  mirrors  of  mercy,"  and  they  love 
to  "  show  forth  the  praises  of  Him  who  called  them  out 
of  darkness  into  his  marvelous  light."  Our  views  of 
our  obligations  to  the  divine  mercy  are  always  de- 
termined by  our  views  of  personal  sinfulness.  It  is  not 
to  dissever  the  remembrance  of  past  sins  from  the  grace 
that  pardons  them,  and  its  consequent  claims,  that  great 
sinners  are  so  often  brought  to  the  Cross. 

There  is  a  single  thought  with  which  I  will  close  the 
present  chapter.  It  is  one  which  will  bear  to  be  often 
repeated.  JVo  man  is  excusable  for  neglecting  so  great 
solvation.  It  is  a  great  salvation  that  saves  great  sinners 
through  so  great  a  Saviour.  "  If  I  had  not  come  and 
spoken  unto  them,  they  had  not  had  sin  ;  but  now  there 
is  no  cloak  for  their  sin."  What  will  his  excuse  be  at 
the  day  of  judgment,  who  sees  so  many  of  the  worst  of 
sinners  saved  1  Will  it  be  that  the  sin  of  Adam  brought 
him,  without  any  actual  transgression  of  his  own,  into  a 
state  of  sin  and  misery  1  He  will  there  see  that  thou- 
sands born  in  sin  like  himself,  and  irresistibly  prone  to 
evil,  have  laid  hold  of  that  method  of  mercy,  which, 
without  any  consent  or  doing  of  their  own,  forms  a  won- 
derful counterpart  to  the  first  apostacy.  Will  it  be  that 
he  was  exposed  to  peculiar  snares  and  temptations'? 
Will  it  be  that  he  was  depressed,  and  discouraged 
by  a  view  of  his  sins,  from  seeking  the  kingdom  of 
God  1  Will  it  be  that  his  sins  had  gained  such  amazing 
power  over  his  mind,  that  it  was  vain  for  him  to  think  of 
becoming  a  Christian?  Will  it  be  that  he  was  so  wicked 
as  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  mercy  ?   Will  it  be  that  God 


200  THE    GREATNESS    OF    SIN    NO    OBSTACLE 

was  so  severe  and  inexorable  that  it  was  useless  for  him 
to  sue  for  pardon  ?  Will  it  be  that  the  Cross  brought  no 
glad  tidings  of  great  joy  to  such  a  sinner  as  he  ?  Will  it 
be  that  no  man  who  has  lived  as  he  has  lived,  that  has 
so  "  sold  himself  to  commit  deeds  of  wickedness,"  that 
has  abused  such  light  and  such  privileges,  that  has  passed 
through  so  many  affecting  scenes,  and  for  whom  so  much 
was  done  to  prevent  his  falling  into  perdition,  and  all  in 
vain,  never  obtained  mercy  1  No,  it  will  be  none  of  all 
these.  Great  multitudes,  even  viler  than  he,  will  then 
be  accepted  in  the  Beloved,  while  he  is  cast  out.  He 
will  see  then  that  nothing  could  have  destroyed  him  if 
he  had  returned  to  God  through  the  Cross  of  Christ. 
Greater  sinners  than  he  will  rise  up  in  the  judgment  and 
protest  that  he  might  have  been  saved  as  well  as  they, 
and  upon  the  same  condescending  and  gracious  terms. 
And  what  cutting  and  bitter  reflections  will  then  pass 
through  his  mind  !  "Oh,  why,  why  did  I  not  flee  to  the 
blood  of  the  Cross !  Why  did  I  not  listen,  while  it  was 
called  to-day !  Why  did  I  so  often  and  so  long  turn  a 
deaf  ear  to  the  counsels  of  heavenly  mercy !  I  was  a 
great  sinner — but  so  were  those  who  washed  their  robes 
and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  ;  and 
now  they  are  before  the  throne  of  God,  and  worship  him 
day  and  night  in  his  temple,  and  I  am  a  wretched  out- 
cast !" 

Bitter,  most  bitter,  will  be  such  reproaches.  How  true 
it  is  that  the  sinner  will  be  hereafter  his  own  tormentor ! 
He  needs  no  vengeful  storm  of  almighty  wrath  to  crush 
him,  for  he  is  crushed  under  the  burden  of  his  own 
reproaches.  Nor  can  he  escape,  any  more  than  he  can 
run  away  from  himself.  There  will  be  no  mercy  for  him 
to  think  of  then,  save  the  mercy  he  has  abused.  Truly, 
that  dismal  world  will  be  a  world  of  tears.     Sighing  and 


TO  SALVATION  BY  THE  CROSS.        £01 

sorrow  will  go  up  from  it,  and  groans  will  mingle  with 
its  inflicted  wrath  and  anguish. 

Think,  then,  of  the  Cross  and  his  rich  mercy,  his  free, 
immeasurable,  everlasting  mercy,  whose  "  blood  maketh 
the  foulest  clean."  If  you  are  the  greatest  sinner  in  the 
world,  then  have  you  the  greatest  need  of  Christ,  and 
what  is  more,  the  greatest  encouragement  to  come  to 
him.  There  is  room  for  the  greatest  sinner,  because 
there  is  room  for  the  least.  The  least  has  sinned  enough 
to  perish  without  an  interest  in  the  Cross,  and  the  great- 
est has  not  sinned  so  much  but  the  Cross  may  be  honored 
in  his  salvation. 

"  My  crimes  are  great,  but  don't  surpass 
The  power  and  glory  of  thy  grace. 
Great  God,  thy  nature  hath  no  bound  ; 
So  let  thy  pardoning  love  be  found." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE      HOLINESS     OF     THE      CROSS. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Cross,  as  it  has  been  exhibited  in 
the  preceding-  chapter,  is  "  so  far  removed  from  the 
common  conceptions  of  men,  that  it  is  not  wonderful 
they  should  scrutinize  its  moral  aspect  and  influence." 
There  are  not  wanting  those  who  accuse  these  doctrines 
of  having  a  licentious  tendency ;  who  affirm  that  they 
encourage  men  to  sin  ;  and  that  if  they  be  true,  there  is 
no  small  weight  in  the  ancient  and  Antinomian  objection : 
"  Let  us  continue  in  sin,  that  grace  may  abound."  For 
consider  what  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Cross  are.  Ac- 
cording to  the  statements  of  the  sacred  volume,  the 
pardon  of  all  true  believers  is  procured  exclusively  by  the 
atoning  blood  of  the  Son  of  God;  their  justification  consists 
in  being  accounted  righteous,  and  treated  as  perfectly  obe- 
dient subjects  of  God's  government  only  for  the  righteous- 
ness of  Jesus  Christ,  imputed  to  them  by  God,  and  received 
by  faith.  Nothing  which  they  have  done,  or  can  per- 
form, can  answer  the  requisitions  of  the  divine  law.  No 
obedience,  no  good  works,  no  righteousness  of  their 
own,  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  constitute  the  basis  of 
their  acceptance  in  the  sight  of  God.  In  receiving  Christ, 
all  dependence  upon  any  services  of  their  own  is  re- 
nounced. Their  duties  have  no  more  to  do  with  the 
meritorious  ground  of  their  acceptance  than  their  sins, 


THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS.  203 

because  neither  of  them  have  anything  to  do  with  it.  They 
are  justified  on  the  same  grounds  on  which  the  pardoned 
thief  was  justified,  who  had  710  good  works  to  plead,  and 
whose  only  ground  of  hope  was  the  atoning  and  justify- 
ing Saviour,  who  hung  bleeding  by  his  side.  Besides 
this,  they  have  the  assurance  of  perseverance  in  the 
divine  life — promises  that  they  shall  never  so  fall  away 
as  finally  to  perish,  and  that  their  names  are  written  in 
heaven,  and  will  never  be  obliterated  from  the  Lamb's 
book  of  life.  Now  we  affirm  that  the  cordial  reception 
and  inwrought  persuasion  of  these  truths,  so  far  from  re- 
laxing the  bonds  of  moral  obligation  and  tending  to  licen- 
tiousness, purifies  the  heart  and  renovates  the  character. 
The  man  who  derives  from  them  the  smallest  encourage- 
ment to  sin,  has  never  understood  and  felt  them  as  he 
ought ;  has  failed  to  view  them  in  some  of  their  most 
interesting  and  holiest  relations ;  and  while  he  may  hope 
Christ  Jesus  is  of  God  made  "  to  him  wisdom,  righteous- 
ness and  redemption,"  is  fatally  deceived  in  that  hope, 
unless  he  is  made  of  God  to  him  "  sanctification"  also. 
We  will  expand  these  thoughts  by  the  following  distinct 
observations : 

The  dispensation  of  grace  by  the  Cross  of  Christ,  so  far 
from  making  void,  or  abating,  confirms^  and  establishes  the 
obligations  of  the  moral  law.  The  obligation  of  men  to 
practical  righteousness  is  an  immutable  obligation.  It  is 
founded  in  the  nature  of  the  Deity,  and  in  the  nature  and 
relations  which  men  sustain  to  him  and  to  one  another. 
It  cannot  be  relaxed,  but  is  everywhere  binding,  under 
every  possible  condition  of  man's  existence,  and  through 
interminable  ages.  It  is  binding  on  those  who  never 
fell,  and  where  its  penalty  has  not  been  incurred;  and 
not  less  binding  on  those  who  fell,  and  where  its  penalty 
is  eternally  endured.     It  is  binding  on  impenitent  and 


204  THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

unbelieving'  men  who  arc  still  under  its  wrath  and  curse  ; 
and  equally  binding-  on  all  true  believers,  in  whose  favor 
its  penalty  is  graciously  remitted  through  him  who  bore 
it  in  their  place.  It  is  written  upon  the  conscience  in 
lines  that  can  never  be  effaced ;  it  is  published  in  the 
Scriptures,  there  to  stand  as  the  unalterable  expression  of 
the  divine  authority ;  and  so  long  as  God  and  creatures 
remain  what  they  are,  can  never  be  abrogated  or  modi- 
fied. Whatever  authority  it  had  before  men  believe  the 
Gospel,  it  has  afterwards.  It  does  not  cease  to  be  the 
rule  of  life  and  duty.)  because  it  is  no  longer  the  rule  of  jus- 
tification. It  does  not  cease  to  require  obedience,  either 
because  it  has  been  violated,  or  because  the  obedience  it 
requires  can  no  longer  be  the  ground  of  acceptance  with 
God.  The  vicarious  obedience  of  the  Cross,  though  gra- 
ciously imputed  to  the  believer  for  his  justification,  was 
never  designed  to  be  substituted  in  the  place  of  his  own 
personal  holiness  for  any  other  purpose  than  his  justifica- 
tion merely.  If,  as  has  sometimes  been  most  unscriptur- 
ally  represented,  the  obedience  of  the  Saviour  relieves  the 
believer  from  all  personal  obedience ;  or  if,  as  has  been 
incautiously  represented,  the  design  of  the  Cross  is  to 
relax  the  law  in  its  requirements,  and  accommodate  it  to 
the  weaknesses  and  frailty  of  men ;  if  the  extent  of  their 
disposition  to  obey  be  the  measure  of  their  obligations, 
and  they  are  bound  to  do  only  what  they  are  inclined  to 
do  ;  then  should  we  indeed  "  make  void  the  law  through 
faith."  But  if  the  Gospel  teaches,  that  neither  justifica- 
tion through  another's  righteousness,  nor  the  inability  of 
the  creature,  affects  for  a  moment  the  extent  and  force  of 
his  obligations  to  personal  obedience,  and  that  the  holy 
Lawgiver  will  as  soon  cease  to  exist,  as  cease  to  require 
a  holy,  spiritual  and  perfect  obedience ;  then  does  it 
"  establish  the  law."     And  does  not  the  Cross  most  dis- 


THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS.  205 

tinctly  and  abundantly  teach  this  1     Is  it  behind  the  law 
as  a  system  of  moral  obligation  ?    Does  it  not  everywhere 
recognize,  and  uphold,  and  honor  the  authority  of  the 
law,  and  put  its  seal  of  blood  upon  its  undiminished  ob- 
ligations to  holiness  1     Does  not  the  sufferer  of  Calvary 
say,   "Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law;  I 
am  not  come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill  V     Is  not  the   uni- 
form language  of  his  Gospel,  "Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am 
holy  *?"     Does   not  every  command  it  issues  require  the 
holiness  of  the  heart,  as  the  indispensable  element  of  all 
obedience  1  and  does  it  not  discountenance  all  pretensions 
to  obedience  that  flow  not  from  such  a  source  1     Does  it 
not  elevate  the  standard  of  practical  godliness  and  sound 
morality  far  above  the  sickly  and  stinted  forms  of  worldly 
virtue,  and  call  upon  its  disciples  to  carry  the  principles 
and  influence  of  their  religion  into  all  places,  all  society,  all 
employments,  "  everywhere  manifesting  truth  and  hon- 
esty, sobriety  and  honor,  kindness  and  the  love  of  God  ?" 
Does  it  not  maintain  the  most  uncompromising  hostility 
to  every  form  and  degree  of  wickedness,  both  of  principle 
and  practice,  and  stand  separate  and  aloof  from  all  fellow- 
ship with  the  works  of  darkness?     These  things  are  too 
obvious  to  be  questioned;  and  were  they  not  obvious, 
wicked  men  themselves  would  love  the   Gospel  with  all 
their  hearts.     Nothing  is  more  characteristic  of  the  Cross 
than  the  holy  salvation  it  reveals.     It  saves  not  in  sin, 
hut  from  sin.     The  great  reason  why  a  world  that  lieth 
in  wickedness  is  so   hostile  to  this  method  of  grace  is, 
that  it  proclaims  so  holy  a  salvation,  demands  the  sacri- 
fice of  every  idol,  and  asserts  the  undiminished  preroga- 
tives of  the  Supreme  Lawgiver. 

The  method  of  salvation  by  the  Cross  of  Christ,  also 
reveals  the  only  motives  and  the  only  grace  by  which  men 
become  holy.     The  motives  and  influences  under  which 


206  THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

men  become  holy,  are  not  found  under  a  purely  legal 
dispensation.  Notwithstanding  the  excellences  and  ob- 
ligations of  the  law  to  which  we  have  just  referred,  the 
Scriptures,  and  universal  experience  and  observation, 
evince  that,  so  far  as  regards  every  fallen  race  of  intelli- 
gences in  the  universe,  those  who  are  under  no  other 
than  a  purely  legal  dispensation  are  under  the  dominion 
of  sin.  Had  God  designed  to  reclaim  the  apostate  angels, 
he  w^ould  never  have  left  them  under  the  bitter  bondage 
of  a  broken  law.  The  government  which  declares, 
obey  and  live,  or  transgress  and  die,  righteous  and  equita- 
ble as  it  is,  never,  since  the  fall  of  angels  and  men,  made 
one  of  the  human  family  holy.  It  might  make  men 
cautious  in  their  outward  deportment — abstemious  and 
watchful — exact  and  punctual  in  their  morality  ;  but 
never  yet  did  it  reach  the  heart,  and  fill  it  with  holy  love. 
The  best  spirit  it  ever  produces  is  that  self-righteous  and 
legal  spirit,  which  takes  its  rise  from  motives  and  aims 
which  God  disapproves  and  condemns.  It  operates  upon 
the  fears  of  men,  but  awakens  no  holy  affection.  It  makes 
them  slaves,  but  not  children.  The  stronger  its  heavy 
bonds  are  drawn  around  the  conscience,  the  more  cer- 
tainly does  the  depraved  heart  resist  them ;  and  the  more 
inflexible  its  penalty,  the  more  obdurate  is  the  sinner's 
rebellion.  The  most  it  ever  accomplishes,  is  to  impart  a 
sense  of  obligation  ;  to  uncover  the  depths  of  sin  within 
the  soul ;  to  awaken  all  that  is  terrible  in  apprehension, 
and  to  leave  the  transgressor  in  the  frenzy  of  despair, 
because  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  escape  its  curses.  While 
in  the  act  of  subduing  and  restraining  his  outward  sins, 
it  is  the  occasion  of  his  plunging  into  deeper  inward 
wickedness.  The  truth  of  this  observation  is  confirmed 
by  the  moral  history  of  every  deeply  convinced  sinner. 
Under  the  strongest  and  most  painful  convictions,  and 


THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS.  207 

more  generally  in  proportion  to  the  strength  and  distress 
of  them,  he  sins  faster  and  stronger,  as  the  clouds  of 
despair  thicken  and  grow  black  over  his  head.  The 
more  he  increases  his  self-righteous  strivings  after  holi- 
ness, the  more  is  he  discouraged  by  a  sense  of  his  weak- 
ness, till,  with  Paul,  "  the  commandment  which  was  or- 
dained to  life, he  finds  to  be  unto  death."  The  melancholy 
fact  is,  men  are  too  far  gone  in  depravity  and  guilt  to  be 
delivered  from  sin  by  a  mere  sense  of  obligation,  however 
strong  and  distressing  those  convictions  may  be.  The 
law  is  of  important  use  in  leading  them  to  a  dispensation 
of  mercy  ;  but  shut  out  a  dispensation  of  mercy,  and 
"  when  the  commandment  comes,  sin  revives  and  the 
sinner  dies."  His  efforts  are  of  no  avail ;  his  every  hope 
is  fled  ;  and  not  unfrequently  his  iniquity,  instead  of 
being  strong,  becomes  desperate  and  recklese.  Many  is 
the  convinced  sinner,  to  whom,  under  this  terrible  state 
of  mind,  life  itself  has  been  a  burden,  and  who,  but  for 
the  interposing  providence  of  that  God  who  wounds  to 
heal,  would  have  rushed  unbidden  into  the  presence  of 
his  Maker.  But  where  sin  and  the  adversary  are  re- 
strained from  these  fearful  excesses,  what  wonder  if,  in 
this  bondage  of  iniquity,  shut  out  from  hope,  and  with  a 
totally  depraved  heart  within  him,  the  only  effect  of  the 
law  should  be  to  operate  upon  his  corrupt  desires,  provoke 
resistance,  and  lead  him  to  the  course  of  conduct  which 
it  forbids  1  Inexcusably  and  unspeakably  sinful  as  all 
this  is,  such  is  human  nature,  such  is  man,  degraded, 
rebellious  man.  In  a  purely  sinful  being,  as  every  unre- 
generate  man  is,  iniquity  always  becomes  more  active  by 
the  restraints  put  upon  it,  save  when  those  restraints  are 
mingled  with  all-conquering  love.  Complacency  for  the 
disobedient,  the  law  knoAvs  not  5  mercy  for  him  it  knows 


208  THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

not ;  and  its  strong  hand  of  oblig-ation  and  penalty  only 
drives  him  to  despair  of  holiness. 

Men  need  something-  more  than  to  become  acquainted 
with  their  obligations  and  their  sins.  It  is  as  true  of  the 
moral  as  of  the  ceremonial  code,  that  the  law  "  was 
added  because  of  transgressors,  until  the  promised  Seed 
should  come."  It  was  to  prepare  men  to  receive  the 
Gospel.  They  were  placed  under  a  legal  dispensation, 
and  are  continued  under  it  now,  with  the  view  of  leading 
them  to  a  dispensation  of  grace.  They  go  not  for  holi- 
ness to  the  mount  that  burnetii  with  fire,  nor  to  the  thick 
darkness,  nor  to  the  forbidding  thunder.  The  "  minis- 
tration of  condemnation,"  glorious  as  it  is,  is  the  minis- 
tration of  condemnation  only.  The  doctrine  of  the 
Cross  furnishes  motives  and  exerts  an  influence  to  holi- 
ness which  the  law  does  not  know.  While  it  abates  no 
obligation  of  the  law,  it  carries  along  with  it  truths 
unknown  to  a  broken  covenant,  and  truths  through  the 
instrumentality  of  which  holy  affections  are  produced 
and  spring  up  in  the  inner  man,  while  the  outer  man 
becomes  progressively  conformed  to  the  law  of  God. 
"  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,"  saith  the  Saviour, 
"  they  are  spirit  and  they  are  /i/e."  They  possess  a 
quickening,  a  life-giving  influence.  They  are  the  only 
system  of  tiuth  that  comes  clothed  and  attended  with 
divine  power,  because  the  only  system  that  is  associated 
with  the  mighty  agency  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  is  one 
of  their  great  peculiarities,  and  is  found  only  in  intimate 
connection  with  the  blood  of  sprinkling.  The  Spirit  was 
procured  by  Christ — is  sent  by  Christ — is  his  spirit.  The 
apostle,  when  speaking  of  the  effects  of  his  influence,  is 
careful  to  speak  of  them  as  "the  sanctification  of  the 
spirit,  through  the  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ." 


THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS.  209 

The  system  of  truth  of  which-  the  Cross  is  the  centre,  in 
prescribing-  rules  of  holy  living,  first  establishes  the  great 
principles  of  faith  from  which  all  holy  living  proceeds, 
and  then  gives  them  efficacy  by  the  promised  and  super- 
added power  of  God.  The  first  thing  it  does,  is  to  teach 
the  sinner  his  lost  and  ruined  condition,  and  show  him 
that  in  himself  he  is  without  hope.  This  done,  it  sum- 
mons all  its  mstrnctions,  all  the  authority  of  its  gracious 
Author,  all  its  love  and  compassion,  all  its  offers  of 
mercy,  and  all  its  persuasive  and  melting  tenderness,  to 
lead  him  to  Him  who  was  crucified.  That  mighty  Spirit 
who  illuminates  the  darkened  understanding,  and  takes 
away  the  heart  of  stone,  "  takes  of  the  things  that  are 
Christ's  and  shows  them  unto  him  ;"  and  in  view  of  the 
wonderful  discovery,  the  affecting  vision  of  the  glory  of 
God  in  the  face  of  his  dear  Son,  the  love  of  God  is  shed 
abroad,  in  his  heart,  and  he  feels  that  he  is  no  more 
"  under  the  law  but  under  grace  " — the  child  of  grace^ 
the  servant  of  grace,  and  happy  only  in  its  influence  and 
authority.  The  Cross  breaks  the  bars  of  his  prison, 
dissolves  the  bondage  of  the  curse,  proclaims  to  him  a 
free  and  gracious  deliverance,  clothes  him  with  a  right- 
eousness that  meets  the  claims  of  the  law,  tells  him  of  the 
"sure  mercies  of  David,"  encourages  him  to  an  obe- 
dience that  is  no  longer  embarrassed  with  "  a  certain 
fearful  looking  for  of  judgment  and  fiery  indignation," 
fills  his  desponding  and  distracted  heart  with  hope,  and 
bids  him  go  on  his  way  rejoicing.  And  who  does  not  see 
that  such  a  man  has  principles  and  aflfections  that  lead 
him,  with  an  honest,  though  it  may  be  with  a  weak  and 
inconstant  mind,  to  abhor  that  "  which  is  evil  and  cleave 
to  that  which  is  good  ?"  ''  Dead  to  the  law  by  the  body 
of  Christ,  he  is  married  to  another,  even  to  him  who  is 
raised  from  the  dead,  that  he  should  bring  forth  fruit  unto 


210  THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

God."  Sacred  influences  act  upon  him  to  wliich  he  was 
before  a  stranger  ;  means  of  sanctification  are  powerful 
that  were  before  powerless ;  and  relations  now  exist 
between  him  and  God  that  were  before  unknown.  He 
lifts  his  eye  to  heaven  and  says,  Abba  Father  !  and 
instead  of  being  embarrassed  and  subjugated  by  the 
terrors  of  a  slave,  he  is  conscious  of  that  filial,  dutiful 
spirit,  which  "  delights  in  the  law  of  God  after  the 
inward  man  ;"  while  that  very  Cross  which  assures  him 
of  the  pardon  of  sin,  also  assures  him  of  its  ultimate 
destruction.  "  There  is  forgiveness  w^ith  thee,  that  thou 
mayest  be  feared."  Christian  men  gain  the  victory  over 
sin,  by  enjoying  the  favor  of  God,  and  living  in  com- 
munion with  the  Cross.  The  source  of  spiritual  life  is 
found  in  Christ,  and  not  out  of  him.  Hope  in  him  is 
one  of  the  great  elements  of  spiritual  advancement. 
The  thought  that  cheers  and  refreshes,  and  puts  glad- 
ness into  the  heart  of  the  trembling  believer,  is,  "  Why 
art  thou  cast  down,  0  my  soul  !  and  why  art  thou  dis- 
quieted within  me  1  Hope  thou  in  God,  for  I  shall  yet 
praise  him  for  the  help  of  his  countenance!"  He  is  no 
longer  "  tossed  with  tempest  and  not  comforted;"  but 
the  "joy  of  the  Lord  is  his  strength,"  and  he  "  runs  in 
the  way  of  God's  commandments  because  God  has 
enlarged  his  heart."  Thougli  clogged  with  a  body  of 
sin,  and  imprisoned  within  a  sinning  world,  he  still  lives 
for  eternity,  anticipates  his  heavenly  inheritance,  thinks 
much  and  often  of  the  "  glory  to  be  hereafter  revealed," 
and  is  habitually  "  looking  for  the  appearing  of  the 
great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ." 

There  is  another  important  principle  connected  with 
the  Cross  of  Christ,  that  secures  its  sanctifying  tendency. 
It  relates  to  the  characters  themselves  who  enjoy  the  blessings 
of  that  salvation  which  the  Cross  purchases.     They  are 


THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS.  ^^ 

not  all  men  indiscriminately.  They  are  not  the  un- 
righteous, but  the  righteous ;  they  are  not  the  impure 
and  unholy,  but  the  "pure  in  heart."  They  are  those 
who  are  born  of  God;  who  hate  and  forsake  sin; 
who  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness;  who  love 
God  and  keep  his  commandments ;  who,  in  one  word, 
believe  in  Christ,  and  "live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of 
God,  who  loved  them  and  gave  himself  for  them."  The 
Son  of  God  was  not  obedient  unto  death,  for  the  purpose 
of  saving  thosewho  reject  him.  Save  that  a  double  con- 
demnation awaits  them  for  having  rejected  this  great 
salvation,  all  such  persons  sustain  the  same  relation  to 
the  penalty  of  the  divine  law  which  they  would  have 
sustained,  had  the  Saviour  never  died.  Were  God  to 
save  them,  he  would  exhibit  himself  to  the  world  as 
the  rewarder  of  iniquity,  and  by  thus  denying  himself, 
would  blot  out  the  glory  of  his  kingdom.  "Without 
holiness,  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord."  Fearfully  gloomy 
does  the  last  dispensation  of  truth  and  mercy  which  the 
world  will  ever  know,  represent  the  prospects  of  the  in- 
corrigibly wicked.  It  is  not  within  the  compass  of  God's 
largest  compassions — it  belongs  not  to  his  rightful  prero- 
gative— it  is  not  within  the  range  either  of  a  moral  or 
natural  possibility,  that  such  persons  should  be  saved. 
Not  until  men  receive  the  Gospel,  have  they  the  least  war- 
rant to  its  pardon  or  its  hopes.  This  single  fact  shows  us, 
in  the  first  place,  the  absurdity  of  the  objection,  that  the 
Cross  of  Christ  makes  any  concessions  to  the  ungodly,  or 
in  the  smallest  degree  connives  at  their  wickedness.  Most 
certainly,  no  encouragement  to  sin  is  found  in  that 
method  of  mercy  which  leaves  the  incorrigible  sinner 
under  condemnation,  tells  him  that  he  is  without  God  and 
without  hope,  and  thunders  in  his  ear,  "  He  that  believ- 
eth  not  shall  be  damned. 


212  THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

place,  that  no  sooner  does  the  grace  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ  manifest  itself  to  the  soul,  enabling  it  to  believe 
in  the  Saviour,  than  the  sinful  character  of  man  is 
changed.  For  what  is  the  faith  that  thus  receives  Christ 
Jesus  the  Lord  ?  What  is  that  moral  state  of  mind,  in 
the  exercise  of  which  men  humble  themselves  before 
God,  confess  and  feel  that  they  are  justly  condemned, 
renounce  their  own  righteousness,  cast  themselves  into 
the  arms  of  boundless  mercy,  and  confide  in  the  mighty 
Saviour  1  How  does  the  soul  arrive  at  this  conclusion, 
and  what  are  the  predominant  affections  that  lead  to  it  ? 
It  is  not  naturally  in  a  posture  to  receive  the  truth  of  the 
Cross,  but  revolts  from  it,  and  turns  with  eagerness  to 
other  foundations  of  confidence.  There  is  no  true  an- 
swer to  this  question  but  that  which  has  just  been 
given,  and  that  is,  that  his  sinful  character  is  changed. 
The  believer  is  not  what  he  once  was,  "  dead  in  tres- 
passes and  sins."  He  is  a  changed  man— changed  by 
the  mighty  power  of  God — or  he  would  not  be  a  believer 
in  Jesus.  "As  many  as  received  him,  to  them  gave  he 
power  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that  be- 
lieve in  his  name;  which  were  born,  not  of  blood,  nor  of 
the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God.''^ 
Their  faith  is  no  cold  speculation,  nor  is  it  the  offspring 
of  wild  enthusiasm ;  nor  is  it  any  evanescent  feeling  or 
fancy.  It  is  not  the  growth  of  this  low  w^orld,  but  some- 
thing purely  of  celestial  origin.  It  is  not  wrought  in  the 
soul  by  its  own  inherent  powers  and  faculties,  but,  like 
the  love  of  God,  is  shed  abroad  in  it  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 
It  is  the  act  of  the  creature,  only  because  it  is  "  the  gift  of 
God."  It  does  not  first  ascend  from  man  to  God,  but 
first  descends  from  God  to  man.  It  is  the  effect  of  that 
new  creation,  transforming  the  soul  that  was  before  dead 
in  sin.     With  such  a  state  of  mind,  entirely  changed  in 


THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS.  213 

regard  to  God  and  all  divine  objects,  old  things  done 
away  and  all  things  having  become  new,  men  receive 
Jesus  Christ.  And  who  does  not  see  that  in  doing  this, 
from  such  a  state  of  moral  feeling,  they  welcome  the 
entire  dominion  of  the  Saviour  over  their  hearts  and  life  1 
This,  indeed,  is  one  of  the  necessary  actings  of  true  faith. 
Not  more  certainly  does  it  look  to  Jesus  as  the  great 
Teacher,  submitting  the  understanding  to  the  light  of 
his  truth — not  more  certainly  does  it  look  to  him  as  the 
great  High  Priest,  through  whose  sacrifice  there  is  par- 
don and  life— than  it  looks  to  him  as  the  great  King  and 
Lawgiver,  cheerfully  submitting  to  his  laws  and  govern- 
ment. In  the  same  measure,  therefore,  in  which  a  man 
possesses  the  faith  of  the  Gospel,  does  he  delight  to  do 
the  will  of  God,  and  his  law  is  within  his  heart.  His 
commandments  are  no  longer  grievous,  nor  is  it  any 
longer  a  hardship  to  him  to  live,  not  unto  himself,  but 
to  him  who  died  for  him,  and  rose  again.  With  all  his 
imperfections,  his  holiness  is  genuine  and  real.  He  de- 
sires to  be  holy,  as  God  is  holy,  and  strives  to  walk  worthy 
of  his  high  calling,  as  one  of  his  chosen  and  adopted  child- 
ren. He  is  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  and  is 
baptized  with  the  love  of  his  Divine  Master.  His  spirit  is 
directly  opposite  to  the  love  of  sinning.  He  just  begins  to 
realize  some  relief  from  the  bondage  of  his  sins,  and  to 
rejoice  in  the  truth,  that  the  Saviour  in  whom  he  confides 
*'  gave  himself  for  his  people,  that  he  might  redeem  them 
from  all  iniquity,  and  purify  unto  himself  a  peculiar  peo- 
ple, zealous  of  good  works."  He  cannot  sin  as  he  once  did, 
because  he  is  born  of  God.  Such  is  the  reasoning  of  the 
Apostle  when  asserting  the  holiness  of  the  Cross  :  "  What 
shall  we  say,  then  1  Shall  we  continue  in  sin^  that  grace 
may  abound  1  God  forbid !  How  shall  we,  who  are  dead 
to  sin,  live  any  longer  therein?"     All  the  influences  of 


214  THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

the  Cross,  therefore,  are  holy  influences.  It  is  by  their 
union  and  communion  with  him  who  was  crucified,  that 
the  views  of  believers  become  elevated,  their  affections 
spiritual,  their  motives  pure,  their  courage  invigorated, 
and  their  victory  over  sin  ultimately  sure.  "  If  a  man 
abide  not  in  me,  he  is  cast  forth  as  a  branch,  and  is 
withered."  True  holiness  flourishes  only  in  the  soil  en- 
riched by  the  blood  of  the  Cross.  It  is  because  Jesus 
died,  that  his  followers  die  unto  sin ;  and  it  is  because 
he  lives,  that  they  live  unto  God.  The  faith  by  which 
the  salvation  of  the  Cross  is  received,  is  but  another 
name  for  holiness,  and  the  believer  but  another  name  for 
one  who,  although  he  has  but  begun  his  spiritual  ca- 
reer, and  will  often  halt  on  his  way,  yet  perseveres  in  his 
path,  and,  like  the  rising  light,  sometimes  eclipsed  by 
passing  clouds,  and  sometimes  even  obscured  by  the 
blacker  tempest,  shines  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect 
day. 

There  is  also  another  principle  in  the  method  of  mercy 
by  the  Cross,  which  secures  its  hallowed  tendencies. 
While  it  is  true  that  he  who  is  once  justified  is  always 
justified,  and  that  no  sins  can  vitiate  his  title  to  eternal 
life,  such  is  the  nature  of  the  Gospel,  that  no  believer  can 
have  a  comfortable  sense  of  his  acceptance,  who  loses  for  a 
time  his  love  of  God  and  holiness,  and  falls  into  sin.  The 
promises  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  have  secured  to  every 
true  Christian  the  ultimate  blessings  of  a  justified  state  ; 
but  they  have  nowhere  secured  to  him  the  constant 
exercise  of  his  faith,  and  the  consequent  evidence  that 
he  is  among  the  justified.  He  may  lose  the  manifest- 
ations of  the  divine  love,  and  all  that  inward  sense  of 
his  adoption  into  the  divine  family,  that  are  necessary  to 
a  comfortable  hope  that  he  has  a  part  with  God's  chosen. 
Christians  who  give  way  to  the  spirit  of  the  world  ;  who 


THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS.  215 

)aeld  to  temptation,  falter  in  their  course,  and  sin  against 
God  by  falling  from  their  steadfastness,  must  pay  the 
forfeiture  of  their  backsliding  by  the  loss  of  all  comfort- 
able intimations  of  pardon.  They  do  sin,  they  may 
sin,  and  yet  be  Christians;  though  they  can  never  be- 
come dead  in  sin,  as  they  once  were.  Those  there  have 
been,  who  have  sinned  fearfully  after  they  have  become 
Christians,  and  whose  wickedness  has  been  the  more 
aggravated,  both  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man,  because 
they  committed  it.  But  even  though  good  men,  they 
themselves  at  such  seasons  cannot  have  evidence  that 
they  are  good  men.  They  cannot  feel  that  they  have 
passed  from  death  unto  life,  while  the  law  of  their  mind 
brings  them  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin.  They  can- 
not have  unclouded  views  of  their  interest  in  Christ,  so 
long  as  they  walk  after  the  fashion  of  this  world.  They 
cannot  say,  under  the  manifestations  of  his  love,  "  My 
Beloved  is  mine,  and  I  am  his,"  when  they  are  im- 
pure, like  David;  false  and  profane,  like  Peter;  in- 
temperate, like  the  disciples  of  Corinth  ;  lukewarm,  like 
Laodicea;  like  the  Church  of  Ephesus,  have  forsaken  their 
first  love ;  or,  like  not  a  few  in  every  age,  do  not  "  walk 
honestly  toward  them  that  are  without."  They  are 
strangers  then  to  the  sweetness  of  the  promise,  and  have 
"received  the  spirit  of  bondage  again  to  fear."  They 
may  contemplate  Christ  "as  revealed  in  the  word,  but 
cannot  find  Christ  revealed  in  the  heart."  Their  hopes 
are  joyless,  and  seem  to  them  as  refuges  of  lies.  The 
dew  of  heaven  no  longer  rests  upon  their  branch  c  The 
candle  of  the  Lord  no  longer  shines  upon  their  head,  and 
God  their  Maker  no  longer  gives  them  songs  in  the  night. 
They  forsake  the  fellowship  of  the  Lord's  people,  keep 
at  a  distance  from  the  table  of  his  grace,  and  instead  of 
following  the  footsteps  of  the  flock  and  lying  down  m 


216  THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

green  pastures,  and  beside  the  still  waters,  they  are 
like  sheep  without  a  shepherd,  and  wandering-  upon  the 
mouniains  in  the  cloudy  and  dark  day.  And  a  most 
merciful  dispensation  is  this,  that  "a  settled  peace  and 
a  guilty  conscience  cannot  dwell  together  in  the  same 
bosom."  And  it  deserves  particular  remark,  that  God 
has  so  thrown  this  protection  around  the  claims  of  holi- 
ness, that  no  Christian  can  tell  how  few  or  how  small 
the  sins  that  may  grieve  the  spirit  of  grace  from  his 
bosom ;  and  no  subtilty  or  research  can  describe  with  pre- 
cision the  sin  that  may  not  quench  the  light  of  all  his 
hopes.  And  what  is  this,  but  the  solemn  and  affecting 
admonition,  "  The  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  his," 
and  let  him  that  nameth  the  name  of  Christ,  "  depart 
from  all  iniquity?"  When  the  believer,  therefore,  de- 
liberately allows  himself  in  sin — in  any  sin — he  need  not 
be  disappointed  if  he  finds  it  a  difficult  problem  to  decide, 
whether  he  is  a  believer.  He  must  pause  in  solicitude 
and  apprehension.  It  becomes  more  and  more  a  question 
of  deep  import,  whether  he  has  anything  more  than  "  a 
name  that  he  liveth."  And  if  he  comes  to  the  con- 
clusion that  he  is  a  deceived  man  ;  if  he  is  even  driven 
to  despair,  and  through  despair  to  renewed  self-abase- 
ment and  godly  sorrow ;  and  through  deep  repentance 
once  more  to  hear  the  voice  of  heavenly  mercy  ;  he  may 
thank  his  Heavenly  Father,  whose  paternal  eye  and 
heart  have  been  upon  him  in  all  his  wanderings,  that  he 
has  "visited  his  iniquity  with  the  rod,  and  his  transgres- 
sion with  stripes,"  but  his  "  loving  kindness  has  not 
taken  from  him,  nor  suffered  his  faithfulness  to  fail."  He 
may  adore  the  reclaiming  power  of  that  Cross  that  has 
put  its  seal  to  the  promise,  "  Though  a  just  man  fall 
seven  times,  he  shall  rise  again." 

Nor  are  there  wanting  fads  that  are  in  keeping  with 


THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS.  217 

all  the  preceding  principles.  Where  do  we  look  for  the 
holiest  men,  and  the  most  devout  worshipers  of  God  1 
Is  it  where  Christ  is  disowned  and  rejected,  or  where  he 
is  believed  and  honored,  and  the  attractions  of  his  Cross 
are  felt?  Let  the  experience  of  the  Christian  world  give 
the  answer.  Where  does  penitence  weep,  but  at  the 
Cross  1  Where  is  the  flesh  humbled  and  pride  debased, 
but  at  the  Cross?  Where,  if  not  at  the  Cross,  does 
unwearied  diligence  in  well-doing  find  its  impulse  and 
encouragement  1  Where  else  does  the  sinner  hold  inter- 
course with  God  1  Where  is  Christian  vigilance  unsleep- 
ing, if  not  at  the  Cross  1  Where  does  faith  work  by  love, 
or  hope  purify,  or  holy  fear  alarm,  or  holy  promise  com- 
fort, or  the  meekness  of  wisdom  rectify  the  inequalities  of 
the  natural  temperament,  but  at  the  Cross?  What,  but  the 
balmy  atmosphere  of  the  Cross,  seasons  the  conversation, 
so  "  that  it  ministers  grace  to  them  that  hear  it  ?"  What 
consecrates  time,  talent,  and  property  and  influence  to 
their  true  ends,  but  the  love  of  Christ  ?  Where  else  are 
the  lessons  of  patience  and  resignation,  and  forgiveness 
of  enemies,  and  of  every  social  virtue  ?  And  where  else 
is  the  struggling  believer,  looking  back  on  the  past,  and 
in  near  view  of  the  future,  ever  heard  to  say,  "  I  have 
fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course,"  except 
when  lying  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross?  Obliterate  all  the 
holiness  in  our  world  that  is  the  sole  effect  of  the  Cross, 
and  how  much,  think  you,  would  there  be  left  ?  Where 
would  the  multitude  of  witnesses  to  the  power  of  vital 
godliness  be  found,  if  you  seek  them  not  among  believers 
in  the  Cross  ?  Where  would  you  look  for  the  history  of 
vital  piety  in  the  past  ages  of  the  world,  if  not  in  the 
very  history  of  that  religion  of  which  the  Cross  of  Christ 
is  the  substance  and  expression?  Nowhere.  These 
10 


218  THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

things  cannot  be  found,  except  as  they  are  connected 
with  the  Cross.  Mark  the  effects  of  preaching-  Christ 
and  him  crucified,  with  those  produced  by  the  philosophy 
of  the  Schools,  by  the  Pelagianism  and  Arianism  of  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  by  the  modern  preachers  of 
Germany  and  Switzerland,  by  the  cold  and  heartless 
morality  which  freezes  on  the  lips  of  the  Unitarian  min- 
istry in  our  own  land,  and  it  will  be  no  difiScult  matter 
to  see  which  is  the  better  adapted  to  promote  the  "  holi- 
ness without  which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord."  The 
Cross  collects  all  the  moral  considerations  in  the  universe, 
and  gives  them  all  their  force  and  tenderness.  It  is  the 
voice  of  the  Creator  uttered  in  more  attractive  emphasis 
than  creation  speaks.  It  is  the  Lawgiver,  uttering  the 
appeal,  "  If  ye  love  me,  keep  my  commandments."  It 
is  the  voice  of  the  soul,  telling  its  value  by  the  price  of 
its  redemption.  It  is  the  supreme  good,  throwing  a  dark 
shadow  over  the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  and  all  the 
glory  of  them.  It  is  a  tranquil  conscience,  grace  to  help 
in  the  time  of  need,  exceeding  great  and  precious  pro- 
mises, victory  over  every  foe,  triumph  over  death  and  the 
grave,  and  a  heaven  of  holiness  where  Jesus  dwells. 
There  is  no  name  given  under  heaven,  which  lips  of 
incorrigible  wickedness  may  pronounce  with  less  impu- 
nity, than  the  name  of  Jesus ;  and  no  thought  more 
absolutely  withering,  even  to  the  secret  purpose  of  sin- 
ning, than  the  thought  of  the  Cross. 

I  know  that  no  man  is  perfectly  sanctified  in  this  life, 
and  have  looked  with  no  small  concern  on  some  modern 
fanatics  who  profess  to  obtain  sinless  perfection.  It 
implies  no  palliation  for  sin,  that  we  are  constrained  to 
confess  that  such  is  its  power  over  the  best  of  men,  that 
it  is  felt  and  seen  in  their  character  and  conduct  to  the 


THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS.  219 

end  of  life.  If  any  imagine  it  is  otherwise  with  them- 
selves, and  find  not  occasion  for  constant  conflict  and 
struggles,  it  is  because  they  are  either  unacquainted  with 
themselves,  or  their  standard  of  holiness  is  very  low. 
This  disordered  world,  staggering  under  the  curse  of  God, 
was  not  transformed  from  its  primitive  beauty  and  love- 
liness to  be  the  habitation  of  angels.  These  frail  bodies, 
subject  to  pain,  disease,  infirmity  and  death,  were  not 
]nade  to  be  the  abode  of  pure  and  perfect  spirits.  As  the 
hour  draws  nigh  when  sin  almost  ceases  to  oppress^  and 
the  adversary  to  ensnare,  it  is  a  strong  indication  that  the 
earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  is  about  to  be  taken 
down,  and  this  low  earth  to  be  exchanged  for  the  new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  right- 
eousness. But  though  doomed  to  the  struggle,  the 
Christian  is  sure  of  the  ultimate  victory.  Let  it  be  your 
aim,  your  effort,  and  your  prayer,  to  look  continually 
toward  the  crown.  Let  your  very  sorrows  and  griefs 
be  indications  of  a  holy  mind  ;  and  when  you  hang  your 
harps  upon  the  willows,  let  it  be  because  you  feel  your 
distance  from  God,  and  have  sinned  against  him  you 
most  love. 

I  may  be  addressing  some  who  have  no  holiness.  We 
have  no  other  gospel  to  proclaim  to  the  men  of  the  world, 
than  that  proclaimed  to  the  people  of  God.  It  is  "  Jesus 
Christ  made  of  God  to  you  sanctiji cation  "  as  well  as 
pardon.  You  will  never  know  what  holiness  is,  until 
you  have  felt  the  power  of  grace  in  Jesus  Christ.  The 
Cross  is  not  less  the  refuge  of  the  polluted,  than  the  con- 
demned. It  is  the  only  way  to  holiness.  If  you  would 
be  holy,  you  must  begin  with  receiving  Jesus  Christ. 
Wanderer  from  the  paths  of  rectitude  and  peace,  he  would 
lead  you  back.     Slave  of  sin,  he  would  fain  break  thy 


220  THE    HOLINESS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

chains,  and  set  thee  free.  There  is  no  peace,  saith  my 
God,  to  the  wicked.  There  is  no  employment,  no  joy, 
no  society,  no  place  in  heaven,  for  an  unholy  man. 
Heaven  would  be  no  heaven  to  the  man  whom  the  Cross 
has  not  made  holy. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THE      RELIGION     OF     THE    CROSS,      IN     DISTINCTION     FROM 
RELIGIONS   THAT    ARE    FALSE    AND    SPURIOUS. 

Religion  consists  in  conformity  to  God,  and  the  Cross 
of  Christ  alone  produces  that  conformity.  It  is  its  own 
witness,  and  carries  in  itself  infallible  evidence  of  its 
divine  origin.  Those  who  are  truly  the  subjects  of  it  will 
never  renounce  it  for  a  religion  that  is  false  ;  while  those 
who  are  not  truly  the  subjects  of  it  are  continually  liable 
to  renounce  it  for  any  false  system  that  is  more  in  accord- 
ance with  their  own  corrupt  and  selfish  desires.  The 
religion  of  the  Cross  possesses  some  great  characteristics, 
whereby  it  is  known  and  distinguished  from  all  other 
religions.  The  object  of  the  present  chapter  is  to  exhibit 
some  of  these  prominent  and  distinctive  features.  I  say 
some  of  these,  because  we  cannot  exhibit  them  all  with- 
out occupying  time  which  we  may  not  occupy. 

The  first  great  characteristic  of  the  religion  of  the  Cross 
is,  that  it  is  the  religion  of  principle,  in  distinction  from 
the  religion  of  impulse.  It  addresses  itself  to  the  under- 
standing and  conscience,  and  makes  no  appeal  to  igno- 
rance and  superstition.  Rich  in  truth,  it  sets  before  the 
minds  of  men  the  great  objects  of  Christian  affection  ; 
and  by  thus  enlightening  the  conscience,  gives  force  and 
energy  to  the  bonds  of  Christian  obligation.  It  aims  at 
carrying  the  heart  by  first  convincing  the  judgment.    Its 


222  THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS. 

great  axiom  is,  "  To  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good,  and 
doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin."     The  faith  it  requires  is 
not  a  blind  credulity;  nor  is  the  obedience  it  enjoins,  obe- 
dience to  anything  short  of  the  truth  of  God.    It  is  a  reli- 
gion founded  upon  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  they  alone  are 
the  test  by  which  its  genuineness  is  to  be  proved,  because 
they  alone  are  the  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  and  by  them 
will  all  men  be  judged  at  the  last  day.     Religions  that 
are  propagated  by  the  power  of  human  laws,  and  are 
founded  on  the  traditions  and  commandments  of  men, 
never   aim  at  enlightening  the  conscience ;    while  the 
religion  of  the  Cross,  "by  manifestation  of  the   truth, 
commends  itself  to  every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight 
of  God."    The  only  means  adopted  by  the  Cross  to  make 
men  Christians,  consist  in  exhibiting  and  enforcing  its 
truths;    and  the   only   way  in  which   men   themselves 
become  Christians,  is  by  understanding  these  truths,  and 
feeling  their  power.     Our  impressions  of  truth  may  be 
right   or  wrong,  they   may  be  permanent   or  mutable, 
advancing  or  retrograde,  strong  or  weak ;  but  the  truth 
itself  remains   the  same.     Wherever  the  religion  of  the 
Cross,  therefore,  is  experienced,  and  to  whatever  degree 
it  is  experienced,  it  grows  out  of  the  truths  which  the 
Cross  reveals.    Whatever  a  man's  hopes  and  professions 
may  be,  if  he  neither  perceives  these  truths,  nor  feels 
their  power,  he  is  no  Christian.     Just  as  the  seed  con- 
tains the  tree,  and  comprehends  the  germ  of  all  its  future 
development,    and   gives    character   to   the   trunk,    the 
branches,  the  leaves,  the  blossoms,  the  fruit — so  do  the 
principles  of  the  Cross  lie  at  the  foundation  of  its  reli- 
gion.    That   religion   is   but   the  exemplification  of  its 
truths.     They  give  the  mind,  the  heart,  the  character,  a 
new  direction ;  they  constitute  the  model  on  which  all 
living  Christianity  is  formed.     Thev  are  not  ineffectual 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS.  223 

and  abortive  principles  :  wherever  they  are  followed  out 
in  their  legitimate  results,  they  produce  the  same  religious 
character  all  the  world  over.  The  principles  of  the  Gos- 
pel are  in  themselves  fitted  to  exert  a  wonderful  influence. 
God  revealed  them  for  this  purpose  ;  and  all  who  receive 
them  intend  and  desire  that  they  should  exert  that  influ- 
ence on  themselves.  Our  principles  do  not  grow  out  of 
our  religion,  but  our  religion  out  of  our  principles.  We 
begin  with  principle  and  not  with  feeling.  The  religion 
of  every  man  is  just  what  his  principles  make  it.  We 
must  have  been  very  inattentive  readers  of  the  Scriptures, 
not  to  have  remarked  the  frequency  and  force  with  which 
they  express  these  thoughts.  They  instruct  us,  that 
"without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  God."  Paul 
based  the  duties  of  piety  upon  the  foundation  of  its  doc- 
trines ;  and  not  until  he  had  laid  this  foundation  deep 
and  broad,  did  he  deduce  the  practical  conclusion,  "  I 
beseech  you,  therefore,  brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God, 
that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy, 
acceptable  unto  God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service.'" 
In  his  epistle  to  Titus,  he  urged  him  to  constancy  in 
inculcating  the  great  principles  of  the  Gospel,  with  the 
special  view  that  "  they  which  have  believed  in  God 
might  be  careful  to  maintain  good  works."  Common 
sense  confirms  the  truth  and  importance  of  these  instruc- 
tions. The  experience  of  good  men  shows  nothing  more 
clearly  than  that  in  whatever  degree  they  possess  the  reli- 
gion of  the  Gospel,  and  practice  its  duties,  in  the  same 
degree  do  they  understand  its  principles  and  love  to 
understand  them.  There  are  not  wanting  causes  of 
religious  excitement,  where  there  is  no  religion.  It  is  a 
very  easy  thing  to  interest  and  work  up  the  sensibilities 
of  men.  Powerful  and  artful  appeals  to  the  passions 
and  the  imagination  may  do  this  ;  the  pomp  and  solera- 


224  THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS. 

nity  of  exterior  worship,  the  imposing  grandeur  and 
magnificence  of  its  temples,  its  goklen  images  and  altars, 
its  enchanting  music,  its  rich  vestments,  and  its  myste- 
rious ceremonies,  may  do  this ;  while  in  all  this  there 
may  not  be  one  great  principle  of  the  Gospel  to  sink  into 
the  soul.  Wherever  there  is  Christian  emotion,  there  is 
Christian  principle ;  and  wherever  there  is  strong  emo- 
tion, there  must  be  strong  principle  for  it  to  rest  upon, 
else  it  is  spurious.  Religious  ecstacy  without  high  reli- 
gious principle  is  delusion.  Ravishing  sentimentalism  is 
not  piety.  The  great  principles  of  the  Cross,  under- 
stood, believed,  loved,  and  fell  in  their  practical  influence, 
constitute  true  religion.  The  self-conceit,  self-righteous- 
ness, self-complacency  and  false  hopes  of  men  cannot 
bear  the  scrutiny  of  truth ;  while  the  truth,  in  all  the 
consistency  and  vigor  of  its  principles,  is  the  light,  and 
life,  and  strength  of  all  those  hopes  of  which  the  Cross 
is  the  foundation,  and  that  religion  of  which  the  Cross  is 
the  brightest  example.  The  Cross  utters  the  language 
of  principle.  No  event  was  ever  so  emphatically  expres- 
sive of  principle,  as  that  memorable  scene  on  Calvary. 
It  was  not  from  impulse  that  the  Saviour  died.  It  was 
not  for  expediency,  but  for  truth  and  principle.  It  was 
to  illustrate  and  confirm  the  unchanging  principles  of  his 
government,  that  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  whoso- 
ever believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  ever- 
lasting life." 

Another  characteristic  of  the  religion  of  the  Cross  is, 
that  it  is  a  spiritual  religion,  in  oppositio7i  to  a  religion  of 
forms.  The  religion  of  the  Cross  recognizes  the  existence 
of  some  form  of  religious  worship ;  that  is,  it  prescribes 
positive  institutions,  as  well  as  moral  duties.  But  they 
are  very  few,  as  well  as  exceedingly  simple  and  signi- 
ficant.     They  are  comprised  in  the  institution  of  the 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS.  225 

Christian  ministry,  the  pubhc  worship  of  God  on  the 
Lord's  Day,  a  pubHc  profession  of  religion,  baptism  and 
the  Lord's  Supper,  and  the  existence  of  a  visible  church, 
or  religious  society,  on  which  is  imposed  the  obligation  of 
mutual  watchfulness  and  discipline.  Every  good  man 
should  welcome  the  obligation  of  honoring  these  forms 
of  godliness,  and  maintaining  these  divinely  authorized 
institutions.  The  history  of  the  Church  of  God  has 
shown  that  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  stem  the  torrent  of 
infidelity  and  corruption,  where  these  institutions  are 
neglected.  Though  men  may  maintain  all  the  forms  of 
religion,  without  possessing  the  inward  spirit  of  religion 
itself,  yet  where  its  instituted  forms  are  neglected,  its 
inward  spirit  dies  away.  When  we  speak,  therefore,  of  a 
spiritual  religion,  in  opposition  to  a  religion  of  mere  forms, 
we  do  not  do  so  with  any  view  of  bringing  the  instituted 
forms  of  Christianity  into  contempt,  or  even  neglect,  or 
with  any  desire  of  depreciating  them.  But  while  we  pay 
to  them  this  homage,  we  are  not  to  forget  that  the  Scrip- 
tures solemnly  admonish  us  of  the  graceless  character  of 
those  who,  while  they  have  the  form  of  godliness,  deny 
its  power.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  in  the  moral  history  of 
men,  that  the  religious  propensity,  so  deeply  imbedded  in 
the  natural  conscience,  satisfies  and  even  exhausts  itself 
in  the  religion  of  forms.  If  we  look  to  the  religious  rites 
and  ceremonies,  either  of  ancient  or  modern  Paganism, 
what  else  do  we  discover  except  a  merely  formal  religion  1 
If  we  advert  to  the  more  corrupt  periods  of  the  Jewish 
Church,  we  find  all  traces  of  spirituality  lost  and  buried 
in  outward  observances,  and  to  such  an  extent,  that  while 
that  people  corrupted  the  institutions  that  were  of  divine 
appointment,  they  added  to  those  corruptions  not  a  few 
that  were  merely  human.  So,  if  we  look  back  upon  the 
history  of  tlie  Christian  Church,  and  mark  those  periods 
10* 


226  THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS. 

when  the  life-giving  spirit  of  Christianity  had  fled  ;  or  if 
we  look  over  the  face  of  Christendom  as  it  exists  in  the 
age  in  which  we  live,  and  inspect  those  portions  of  the 
nominal  church  where  the  true  faith  and  the  true  charity 
are  struggling  for  existence,  if  they  have  not  actually 
expired ;  we  find  them  distinguished  for  nothing  so  much 
as  their  attachment  to  the  forms  of  religion,  corrupted 
indeed,  and  multiplied  by  the  ingenuity,  superstition  and 
avarice  of  men,  but  still  a  religion  of  forms.  There  is 
everything  that  is  specious  outwardly,  while  within  it  is 
full  of  dead  men's  bones  and  all  uncleanness.  The  Cross 
and  the  altar  are  there  ;  but  the  religion  of  the  Cross  and 
the  sacrifice  which  God  has  required  are  wanting.  They 
are  the  signs,  without  the  thing  signified;  the  body  with- 
out the  soul ;  the  language,  without  the  thoughts  and 
emotions,  of  piety.  The  form  holds  the  place  of  the 
reality;  and  while  the  eye  is  fixed,  and  the  knee  bows, 
and  the  lips  move,  and  the  hand  makes  the  significant 
emblem  of  the  Cross,  the  mind  and  heart  are  without 
God  in  the  world.  The  same  spirit  of  formality,  it  is  to 
be  feared,  is  found  in  not  a  few  who  profess  a  purer  faith. 
It  were  well  if,  among  ourselves,  there  were  no  occasion 
for  contrasting  the  religion  of  the  Cross  with  tliis  system 
of  cold  and  empty  formalism.  Alas  !  how  many  are  to 
be  found  in  every  Christian  community,  who  are  punc- 
tual in  all  the  outward  services  of  the  sanctuary,  who 
listen  to  the  instructions  of  God's  ministers,  and  assume  the 
attitude  of  prayer,  and  with  their  lips  celebrate  the  praise 
of  the  Most  High,  and  partake  of  the  memorials  of  his 
body  and  blood  who  was  lifted  up  from  the  earth ;  whose 
minds  are  employed  elsewhere,  whose  thoughts  wander 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  whose  hearts  are  not  recon- 
ciled to  God  through  the  blood  of  his  Son!  There  will 
probably  always  be  such  formalists  in  the  world  until  the 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS.  227 

day  when  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  fill  the  earth  as  the 
waters  do  the  sea.  Even  wicked  men  will  have  a  reli- 
gion of  forms,  wherever  their  consciences  are  not  so 
obdurate  as  to  be  satisfied  with  infidelity.  It  is  a  fashion- 
able and  fascinating  religion,  and  will  not  want  advocates. 
It  is  for  the  most  part  the  court  religion  ;  and  men  who 
cannot  make  up  their  minds,  for  the  love  of  God,  to  re- 
nounce the  pride  of  life,  will  be  found  among  its  disciples. 
But  it  is  not  more  true  that  the  religion  of  the  Cross  is  a 
religion  of  principle,  than  that  it  is  a  spiritual  religion  in 
opposition  to  the  religion  of  forms.  There  is  no  one 
error  against  which  the  Bible  arrays  all  its  doctrines,  all 
its  precepts,  all  its  penalties,  all  its  promises,  all  its  de- 
scriptions of  character,  all  its  views  of  God  and  of  the 
way  of  salvation  by  his  Son,  with  greater  uniformity  and 
power,  than  against  a  merely  formal  religion.  It  requires 
the  heart  in  everything ;  it  tells  us  that  the  great  Being 
with  whom  we  have  to  do  ''  seeth  not  as  man  seeth  ;" 
it  instructs  us  that  "  man  looketh  on, the  outward  appear- 
ance, but  the  Lord  looketh  on  the  heart."  It  admonishes 
us,  that  "there  are  many  things  highly  esteemed  among 
men  that  are  ahomination  in  the  sight  of  God."  It  de- 
cides the  character  by  the  state  of  the  heart,  and  assigns 
to  every  action  of  a  man's  life  precisely  the  moral  quali- 
ties with  those  of  the  heart  from  which  they  flow.  It 
utters  that  great  and  memorable  fact,  "  God  is  a  spirit, 

AND  THEY  THAT  WORSHIP  HIM  MUST  WORSHIP  HIM  IN  SPIRIT 

AND  IN  TRUTH."  It  describes  the  agency  and  intimates 
the  process  by  which  a  man,  by  nature  "dead  in  tres- 
passes and  sins,"  becomes  a.  child  of  God  and  a  disciple 
of  Jesus  Christ.  That  men  may  be  under  no  misappre- 
hension as  to  the  spirituality  of  religion,  it  is  careful  to 
inform  us  when,  and  where,  and  how  it  begins,  and  by 
what  means  and  influences  it  is  sustained.     It  speaks  of 


228  THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS. 

the  "  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost"  as  a  very  different 
thing  from  the  "  washing  with  water  ;"  of  the  reforma- 
tion of  the  outward  conduct  as  a  very  different  thing  from 
internal  holiness  ;  of  a  knowledge  of  Christianity  as  a 
very  different  thing  from  its  heaven-imparted  virtues  ;  of 
a  name  to  live  as  a  very  different  thing  from  the  life 
of  God  in  the  soul ;  and  of  membership  of  the  church  on 
earth  as  a  very  different  thing  from  membership  of  the 
church  in  heaven.  It  describes  the  inward  conviction  of 
sin,  the  self-loathing,  the  self-despair,  the  penitence,  the 
confidence  in  Christ,  the  love,  the  peace,  the  submission, 
the  joy,  the  hungering  and  thirsting  after  righteousness, 
and  the  delight  in  duty,  which  are  the  unfailing  character- 
istics of  every  follower  of  the  Lamb.  The  men  of  the 
world  can  understand  the  mere  formalism  of  religion :  of 
its  spirituality  they  know  nothing.  They  may  often 
commend  and  extol  a  formal  religion,  while  they  are 
scandalized  by  that  which  is  spiritual.  A  spiritual  religion 
is  a  religion  which  has  its  seat  in  the  heart,  and  of  which 
the  Spirit  of  God  is  the  author.  The  motives  for  it  are 
not  in  the  praise  of  men,  nor  in  a  conscience  soothed  by 
flatteries  or  opiates,  nor  in  any  considerations  that  are 
earthly ;  but  in  the  character  and  command  of  God,  in 
the  love  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  pleasures  of  obedience, 
and  in  the  cheering  hopes  of  a  holy  and  blessed  eternity. 
It  is  the  thinking  spirit  communing  with  God  ;  the  anx- 
ious and  affectionate  heart  gratifying  its  affections  by 
concentrating  them  on  God  ;  the  soul,  everywhere  else 
distrustful,  trusting  in  God  ;  the  rebellious  will  brought 
to  be  obedient  to  God ;  the  cheerless,  uncomforted  being 
ruined  by  sin,  restored,  and  no  longer  uncomforted  and 
cheerless,  because  it  has  learned  to  say,  "  Return  to  thy 
rest,  0  my  soul,  for  the  Lord  hath  dealt  bountifully  with 
thee!"   This  is  as  it  should  be.   This  is  giving  God  more 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS.  229 

than  mere  external  homage  and  reverence ;  more  than  the 
thoug-hts,  more  than  the  profession  of  attachment :  it  is 
giving  him  the  warm  affections,  and  the  supreme  attach- 
ment of  the  heart.  It  is  the  restoration  of  the  soul  to  its 
complacency  in  God ;  it  is  the  thirsty  spirit  drinking  at 
the  fountain  of  living  waters ;  it  is  the  fellowship  of  the 
created  with  the  uncreated  mind ;  it  is  apostate  and 
ruined  man  restored  through  Jesus  Christ  to  the  eternal 
source  of  life  and  joy. 

Another  characteristic  of  the  religion  of  the  Cross  is, 
that  it  is  a  self-denying  and  not  a  selfish  and  self-indulgent 
religion.  One  of  the  cardinal  graces  of  Christianity  is 
the  spirit  of  self-denial.  "  If  any  man  will  come  after 
me,  let  him  deny  himself  and  take  up  his  cross  and  fol- 
low me."  None  but  a  Christian  ever  exercises  this 
spirit ;  nor  did  any  man  ever  become  a  Chistian  on 
lower,  or  easier,  or  other  terms  than  these.  It  is  easy  to 
understand  what  is  meant  by  a  selfish  religion.  It  is  a 
religion  that  springs  from  selfishness.  It  is  built  on  the 
theory  that  men  always  act  from  selfish,  and  interested, 
and  mercenary  motives,  and  cannot  act  from  any  higher 
or  better  principle.  It  is  a  theory  which  teaches  that 
every  man  ought  to  love  himself  and  his  own  interests 
supremely,  and  that  it  is  impossible  to  love  either  God 
or  man  from  any  other  motive.  There  is,  no  doubt,  not 
a  little  of  such  religion  in  the  world.  Those  there  are 
who  are  exceedingly  devout,  and  greatly  religious,  so  long 
as  it  is  for  their  interest  to  be  so.  Their  religion  is  one 
which  terminates  in  self.  It  does  not  terminate  in  truth 
and  duty  for  truth  and  duty's  sake.  It  consists  in  loving 
and  serving  themselves,  and  in  loving  and  serving  God 
and  their  fellow-men,  merely  because  they  love  and  serve 
them.  Nor  is  there  any  diflSculty,  on  the  other  hand, 
in  understanding  what  is  meant  by  a  self-denying  religion. 


230  THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS. 

It  is  a  religion  which  springs  from  self-denying-  motives ; 
which  gives  God  a  higher  place  in  the  heart  than  self; 
which  dethrones  the  idol  self,  and  sets  up  God  in  its  place. 
It  is  a  religion  which  is  governed  by  a  supreme  regard  to 
truth  and  duty  ;  and  which  disposes  its  possessor  to  give 
up  his  own  interest,  and  cheerfully  deny  himself,  for  the 
cause  of  God  and  the  good  of  his  fellow-men.  It  stands 
opposed  to  all  the  selfish  and  mercenary  affections,  and, 
just  so  far  as  it  prevails,  eradicates  them.  And  the  re- 
ligion of  the  Cross  is  a  self-denying,  and  not  a  selfish 
religion.  It  has  nothing  in  it  that  is  mean  and  sordid, 
but  everything  that  is  generous.  It  has  the  magnanimity 
to  make  sacrifices,  to  which  a  pure  and  unregenerated 
egotism  is  a  stranger.  It  possesses  a  greatness  and  noble- 
ness of  character  that  are  superior  to  the  aims  of  a  sordid 
mind,  and  that  never  fail,  where  they  are  exhibited,  to 
secure  the  approbation  even  of  the  men  of  the  world.  A 
selfish  religion  is  an  unreasonable  religion,  because  it  sets 
the  less  above  the  greater,  and  exalts  the  finite  above  the 
infinite  ;  while  a  self-denying  religion  commends  itself  to 
reason  and  conscience,  because  it  sets  the  greater  above 
the  less,  and  exalts  the  infinite  above  the  finite.  The 
Scriptures  portray  this  characteristic  of  the  religion  of  the 
Cross  in  strong  colors.  They  describe  the  self-denying 
character  of  the  Saviour,  who,  "  though  he  was  rich,  for 
our  sakes  became  poor,  that  we,  through  his  poverty, 
might  be  rich;"  and  then  they  bid  us  remember  that 
"  if  any  man  have  not  the  spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none  of 
his."  They  issue  the  injunction,  "  Love  your  enemies ; 
bless  them  that  curse  you ;  do  good  to  them  that  hate 
you ;  and  pray  for  them  which  despitefully  use  you  and 
persecute  you."  They  speak  of  the  love  of  Christ  con- 
straining his  followers  "  to  live  not  unto  themselves,  but 
unto  him  who  died  for  them  and  rose  asrain."     When 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS.  231 

they  lift  the  veil  of  the  future,  and  tell  us  of  those  last 
days  when  "perilous  times  shall  come,"  they  trace 
these  coming  declensions  and  corruptions  to  the  glaring- 
fact  that  "  men  shall  be  lovers  of  their  own  selves."  Men 
have  no  more  of  true,  than  they  have  of  a  self-denying 
religion.  "  Doth  Job  fear  God  for  naught  1  Hast  thou 
not  made  an  hedge  about  him,  and  about  his  house,  and 
about  all  that  he  hath  on  every  side  1  Thou  hast  blessed 
the  work  of  liis  hands,  and  his  substance  is  increased  in 
the  land.  But  put  forth  thine  hand  now,  and  touch  all 
that  he  hath,  and  he  will  curse  thee  to  thy  face."  This 
was  a  blow  at  the  root  of  Job's  religion.  But  God  con- 
descended to  the  artful  objector,  and  put  the  character  of 
his  servant  to  the  test.  Nor  did  he  fail  to  remind  the 
adversary  of  the  result.  "  Still  he  holdeth  fast  his  in- 
tegrity, although  thou  movest  me  against  him,  to  destroy 
him  without  cause."  There  is  nothing  in  which  that 
moral  change,  of  which  all  true  Christians  are  the  siibject, 
is  more  obvious  than  in  this  sjsirit  of  self-denial.  One  of 
the  mournful  consequences  of  human  apostacy  is,  that 
when  man  once  disobeyed  his  Maker  he  became  a 
supremely  selfish  being.  From  one  abyss  of  wretched- 
ness, he  fell  into  another ;  till  he  usurped  the  rights  of 
the  Godhead,  and  substituted  self  in  the  place  of  the  Deity. 
He  made  himself  his  God  ;  and  to  this  idol  he  erected  his 
altars,  and  on  these  altars  offered  his  every  sacrifice.  The 
religion  of  the  Cross  consists  in  the  voluntary  restoration 
of  these  rights  of  the  Deity,  of  which  he  has  been  so  un- 
righteously despoiled  by  this  sacrilegious  usurpation.  It 
is  produced  by  that  moral  revolution  of  the  soul  in  which 
self  is  dethroned,  and  the  crown  restored  to  Him  whose 
is  the  power,  and  the  kingdom,  and  the  glory  forever.  In 
all  questions  of  duty,  the  law  of  God  is  the  rule  of  every 
regenerated    man ;    in   all   his   allotment,   for  weal  or 


232  THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS. 

woe,  the  will  of  God  is  hiswill  ;  and  in  the  great  matter 
of  his  salvation,  he  cheerfully  acquiesces  in  the  humbling 
method  of  mercy  through  his  Son.  His  spirit  of  self-con- 
fidence is  gone,  and  he  is  like  a  little  child.  He  considers 
himself  as  of  low  account,  and  seeks  nothing  so  much 
as  to  live  and  die  to  the  honor  and  glory  of  his  Saviour. 
He  expects  obstacles,  and  is  prepared  to  meet  them  ;  he 
looks  for  trials,  and  is  willing  to  encounter  them  ;  he 
lays  his  account  for  reproaches  and  enemies,  and  does 
not  expect  to  enter  into  his  rest  without  a  conflict.  The 
Cross  is  the  emblem  of  peace,  but  it  is  also  the  emblem 
of  ignominy  and  suffering  :  it  was  so  to  the  Saviour — it  is 
so  to  his  followers ;  nor  do  they  refuse  any  of  its  forms 
of  reproach  and  suffering,  but  willingly  endure  them  for 
the  name  of  Christ.  Men  who  have  so  little  piety  that 
they  have  no  cross  to  bear,  may  well  suspect  the  vigor 
and  consistency,  if  not  the  genuineness,  of  their  religion. 
The  offence  of  the  Cross  has  not  ceased,  nor  has  the  time 
come  when  a  self-denying  spirit  does  not  belong  to  the 
catalogue  of  Christian  graces.  True  religion  is  a  standing 
reproach  to  a  world  that  lieth  in  wickedness ;  and  the 
Christian  that  will  not  deny  his  Master  at  any  price  will 
often  be  called  to  deny  himself.  All  those  religious  affec- 
tions that  cannot  sympathize  with  a  self-denying  spirit 
are  spurious  and  false,  though  they  rise  ever  so  high,  and 
produce  ever  so  great  effects.  We  cannot  determine  the 
character  of  our  piety  any  other  way  than  by  ascertaining 
its  motives.  Ardent  affections,  rapturous  joys,  and  glow- 
ing zeal,  are  nothing  without  that  "  charity  which  seeketh 
not  her  own." 

The  religion  of  the  Cross  also  possesses  another  very 
obvious  characteristic,  in  that  it  has  a  heaven-ward  and 
not  an  earthly  tendency.  The  spirit  of  the  Cross  and  the 
spirit  of  the  world,  in  their  appropriate  influences,  form 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS.  £33 

two  distinct  characters  ;  so  distinct,  indeed,  that  they  form 
two  different  communities,  each  having  its  peculiar  laws, 
principles  and  subjects.  These  communities  ever  have 
been  regarded  as  separate  societies,  and  in  the  Word  of 
God  are  called  by  different  names.  They  are  the  world, 
and  the  church,  or  that  community  which  has  been  called 
out  from  the  world.  They  are  both  found  everywhere 
in  Christian  lands ;  in  every  condition  of  human  life  ; 
among  the  high  and  the  low,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the 
learned  and  the  unlearned  ;  amid  the  noise  and  bustle  of 
business,  and  amid  the  quietude  and  stillness  of  the  more 
retired  occupations.  Every  man  belongs  to  one  of  these 
two  communities ;  he  is  a  citizen  of  one  of  these  two 
countries;  he  is  influenced  mainly  and  habitually,  either 
by  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  or  the  spirit  of  the  world. 
He  must  belong  to  one  or  the  other,  and  it  is  impossible 
he  should  belong  to  both.  "  No  man  can  serve  two 
masters ;  for  he  will  either  love  the  one  and  hate  the 
other,  or  else  he  will  cleave  to  the  one  and  despise  the 
other.  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon."  It  is  easy 
for  men  to  deceive  themselves  by  false  appearances. 
They  mingle  together  in  the  same  general  community ; 
they  enjoy  the  same  religious  privileges,  and  are  em- 
ployed for  the  most  part  in  the  same  outward  duties ;  they 
have  the  same  individual  and  social  necessities ;  but 
there  is  a  spirit,  a  moral  tendency  of  mind,  which  dis- 
tinguishes them.  Now  we  assert  for  the  religion  of  the 
Cross,  a  heaven-ward  in  opposition  to  an  earth- ward 
tendency,  and  claim  for  its  disciples  a  heavenly  in  op- 
position to  an  earthly  mind;  because  the  Scriptures 
explicitly  teach  us,  that  ''  they  that  are  after  the  Spirit, 
do  mind  the  things  of  the  Spirit." 

We  do  not  say,  that  there  can  be  no   true  religion 
where  there  is  not  a  perfect  religion  ;  nor  that  the  true 


234  THE    RELIGION    OF    THE     CROSS. 

disciples  of  Christ  maintain  an  invariable  tendency  to- 
ward heaven  ;  for,  if  we  did,  we  should  claim  for  them, 
what  no  mere  man  ever  possessed,  the  religion  of  angels 
and  of  heaven.  There  is  much  base  alloy  in  their  purest 
gold,  and  much  that  is  earthly  mingled  with  the  heav- 
enly. But  while  this  is  true,  there  is  a  general  bent  and 
turn  of  mind  toward  heavenly  things  which  indicate 
their  spiritual  character.  Their  general  temper  and  dis- 
position, their  habits  of  thought  and  feeling,  when  not 
diverted  by  circumstances  or  occasions  which  give  an- 
other direction  to  them,  flow  in  a  channel  that  con- 
ducts them  beyond  the  things  of  time  and  sense.  God 
and  eternity  are  themes  which  are  not  absent,  for  any 
long  period,  from  their  thoughts.  It  is  not  in  their  hearts 
to  say,  "  Depart  from  us,  for  we  desire  not  the  know- 
ledge of  thy  ways ;"  but  the  rather  to  say,  with  the 
Psalmist,  "  As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water  brooks, 
so  panteth  my  soul  after  thee,  0  God  !"  They  cannot 
live  ''  without  God  in  the  world,"  nor  without  frequent 
communion  with  him,  nor  without  habitual  devotedness 
to  him.  .  While  other  men  are  occupied  only  about  the 
things  that  are  on  the  earth,  they,  though  not  negligent 
of  secular  duties,  are  habitually  conversant  with  the 
things  that  are  above,  where  Jesus  Christ  sitteth  at  the 
right  hand  of  God.  This  is  the  spirit  which  is  given  to 
them  of  God.  "  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh ; 
and  that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit."  The  whole 
complexion  of  their  moral  nature  is  changed  ;  they  are 
the  subjects  of  new  desires  and  new  sensibilities,  and  live 
and  act  as  in  a  new  world.  "  As  a  man  thinketh  in  his 
heart,  so  is  he."  The  prevailing  character  and  com- 
plexion of  their  thoughts  and  affections,  called  off"  as  they 
frequently  are,  and  must  be,  to  the  pursuits  of  time,  is 
more  congenial  to  pursuits  that  have  a  higher  aim  and 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS.  235 

object.  The  intervals  of  exemption  from  worldly  care 
are  hailed  with  pleasure  and  thankfulness,  and  made 
welcome  by  the  more  hallowed  and  endearing-  asso- 
ciations of  piety.  They  love  them ;  they  seek  them ;  and 
when  they  cannot  enjoy  them,  their  harps  are  hung 
upon  the  willows.  It  is  not  complaint  that  you  hear 
from  their  lips  when  they  are  deprived  of  scenes  of 
worldly  amusement  and  dissipation,  but  when  they  are 
shut  out  from  the  scenes,  and  associations,  and  engage- 
ments where  they  hope  to  realize  the  presence  of  God, 
and  have  their  hearts  affected  by  fresh  discoveries  of 
his  mercy,  and  enlarged  and  expanded  by  impressions 
his  truth.  Here  are  their  pleasures  ;  these  the  bright 
spots  in  their  wilderness  ;  and  these  the  scenes  on  which 
the  Sun  of  Righteousness  sheds  his  beams,  and  the  dew 
of  heaven  sheds  its  sacred  fragrance.  The  Word  of  God 
supplies  them  with  their  treasures  of  wisdom  ;  and 
prayer,  and  the  Sabbath,  and  the  sanctuary,  and  the  fel- 
lowship of  the  saints,  constitute  their  relief  from  worldly 
perplexity,  their  consolation  in  trial,  and  their  "  exceed- 
ing joy."  Their  prospects  are  dark,  clouds  settle  upon 
their  path,  and  invisible  foes  beset  them,  if  they  feel 
their  course  toward  heaven  obstructed.  Strangers  and 
pilgrims  on  the  earth,  they  are  traveling  toward  "  the 
rest  that  remaineth  for  the  people  of  God,"  and  are  ex- 
pectants of  that  world  where  "  the  Lamb  in  the  midst  of 
the  throne  shall  lead  them  unto  living  fountains  of 
water,  and  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their 
eyes."  Their  chief  concern  is  not  with  earthly,  but 
with  heavenly  things.  God  and  heaven  awaken  their 
best  affections  and  most  ardent  desires.  They  are  alive 
to  the  interests  of  heaven  and  eternity,  and  are  often 
heard  to  say,  ^^  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  to  gain  the 


236  THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS. 

whole   world,  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?"      This   is   the 
religion  of  the  Cross. 

Another  characteristic  of  the  religion  of  the  Cross  is, 
that  it  is  a  practical  religion,  in  opposition  to  the  abstrac- 
tions of  theory.  It  is  a  religion  which,  from  its  nature, 
expresses  itself,  and  is  carried  out  into  all  the  associations 
and  business  of  human  life.  In  this  respect,  it  differs 
from  all  other  religions.  Other  religions  cannot  be  acted 
out  without  exposing  their  weakness  and  wickedness ; 
and  the  more  they  are  acted  out,  the  worse  they  appear. 
Paganism,  Mohammedanism,  and  all  the  corrupt  and  false 
systems  of  Christianity,  weak  as  they  are,  are  more 
wicked ;  and  false  as  they  are  in  theory,  nevertheless  ap- 
pear best  in  theory  ;  while  both  the  theory  and  practice 
of  true  religion  are  alike  amiable  and  lovely.  Follow 
out  the  principles  of  the  Cross  into  any  or  all  the  social 
relations,  and  into  any  or  all  the  departments  of  human 
labor  and  professional  calling,  and  you  will  see  that  they 
make  good  rulers  and  good  subjects,  good  husbands  and 
good  wives,  good  parents  and  good  children,  good 
judges  and  good  lawyers,  good  physicians,  good  mer- 
chants, good  agriculturists,  good  authors,  good  mechanics, 
good  laborers,  and  good  men.  It  is  the  beauty  and  glory 
of  the  religion  of  the  Cross,  that  it  may  safely  exhibit 
itself  everywhere;  and  the  more  it  is  exhibited,  the  more 
does  it  exemplify  the  truth  and  honesty,  the  purity  and 
decency,  the  temperance  and  honor,  the  peacefulness  and 
meekness,  the  love  and  beneficence,  the  firmness  and 
perseverance  in  well-doing,  which  secure  the  homage 
even  of  a  world  that  lieth  in  wickedness.  It  is  not  con- 
fined to  the  closet,  and  the  sanctuary,  and  the  cloister ; 
but  goes  forth  into  the  world,  mingles  with  its  society, 
and  inweaves  itself  in  all  the  arrangements  and  details 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS.  237 

of  its  business.  Nor  does  it  detach  itself  from  any  of  the 
scenes  of  its  innocent  rehaxation,  but  breathes  into  them 
all  its  own  spirit,  and  withdraws  itself  from  nothing  where 
the  fear  of  God  and  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ  may  act 
themselves  out  with  unembarrassed  freedom.  If  there  is 
anything  that  stops  the  mouths  of  gainsayers,  and  con- 
vinces the  world  that  the  religion  of  the  Cross  is  a  divine 
reality,  it  is  its  practical  character.  It  is  an  easy  thing 
to  declaim  against  the  world  ;  to  proscribe  all  connection 
with  its  pursuits,  and  objects,  and  enjoyments  ;  to  abjure 
it,  to  treat  it  as  the  accursed  thing,  and  to  immure  one's 
self  in  the  solitude  of  some  religious  order,  under  the  pre- 
tence of  superior  sanctity.  But  all  this  is  worse  than 
error.  Religion  has  a  part  to  act  in  the  world.  Her  light 
must  shine  there,  and  there  her  salt  must  preserve  its 
savor.  She  has  an  influence  to  exert  which  cannot  be 
exerted  without  maintaining  intercourse  with  the  world  ; 
and  she  not  only  does  it  without  the  sacrifice  of  principle, 
but  in  obedience  to  principle ;  and  where  she  neglects  to  do 
it,  it  is  because  she  loses  sight  of  one  of  the  main  objects 
of  her  vocation.  The  principles  of  the  Gospel  are  in  nothing 
at  war  with  the  obvious  principles  of  God's  providence. 
God  has  made  Christian  men  to  be  inhabitants  of  this 
world,  and  it  is  a  morbid  and  sinful  state  of  mind  that  in- 
duces them  to  retire  from  it.  If  there  is  any  man  in  the 
world  who  is  qualified  to  enjoy  the  charms  of  domestic  and 
social  intercourse,  it  is  the  Christian.  He  sustains  the  rela- 
tion to  God  and  man,  to  time  and  eternity,  which  fits  him 
for  both  worlds  ;  and  where  he  appreciates  that  relation, 
and  renders  it  subservient  to  the  Cross  of  his  Master,  he  will 
bring  both  worlds  more  frequently  and  nearer  together, 
and  carry  with  him  into  this  world  the  claims  of  the 
world  to  come.  His  relations  to  the  world  around  him 
form  one  of  the  most  interesting  spheres  of  Christian  duty. 


238  THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS. 

Religion  would  be  a  very  easy  matter,  if  we  had  nothing 
to  do  but  withdraw  from  the  pursuits  and  society  of  the 
world.  There  would  be  little  conflict  then,  and  as  little 
triumph.  It  is  not  unfrequently  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
world,  and  amid  all  its  conflicting  claims,  and  noise,  and 
dust,  and  folly,  that  Christian  vigilance  and  circumspec- 
tion shine  out,  and  that  the  followers  of  Jesus  read  les- 
sons to  the  men  of  the  world,  which  teach  them  that 
"  the  friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  with  God."  They 
may  live  in  the  world,  and  yet  live  above  the  world. 
With  the  exception  of  those  instances  where  the  provi- 
dence of  God  renders  this  unseemly  or  impossible,  it  is 
only  then  that  they  live  to  good  purpose.  True  religion, 
like  its  Author,  "  goes  about  doing  good."  It  restricts 
not  itself  to  any  particular  class  of  human  society,  but 
extends  itself  to  all  classes.  It  is  like  the  Cross,  the  re- 
ligion of  love — love  to  man,  as  well  as  love  to  God.  By 
whoever  else  they  may  be  disregarded,  the  woes  of  men 
have  an  advocate  in  the  bosom  of  Christian  compassion. 
It  dwells  among  men ;  it  instructs,  comforts,  and  blesses. 
Where  they  cannot  ascend  to  it,  it  descends  to  them.  So 
far  from  erecting  a  wall  of  separation  between  itself  and 
the  benighted,  the  sinning,  the  suffering,  it  searches  them 
out,  and  watches  its  opportunities  of  doing  them  good. 
Scenes  of  usefulness  draw  Christians  forth  from  their  re- 
tirement, nor  do  obstacles  hinder  them  in  their  career  of 
mercy.  It  would  be  only  a  just  characteristic  of  Chris- 
tianity, if  doing  good  constitutes  the  soul  of  all  they  say 
and  do.  Though  the  best  examples  of  it  are  blended 
with  many  and  mournful  imperfections,  yet  this  is  its 
tendency,  this  its  character.  It  is  not  a  mere  theory,  a 
fiction  of  the  mind,  but  something  which  is  embodied, 
and  realized  in  an  actual  and  active  existence.  It  con- 
stitutes one  of  the  attractions  of  the  Cross  itself,  because 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS.  239 

it  is  the  living  spirit  of  the  Cross,  and  a  practical  and  per- 
suasive exemplification  of  its  power.  The  highest  glory 
of  Christianity  is  its  practical  influence.  This  is  its  na- 
ture, and  it  is  to  this  glory  that  it  elevates  the  nature  of 
man.  This  is  Christianity  in  opposition  to  all  false  re- 
ligions. Selfishness,  expediency,  and  fine  philosophic 
theories,  will  make  men  just,  and  perhaps  honorable  and 
moral,  while  nothing  but  true  benignity,  active  benevo- 
lence, makes  them  Christians.  In  no  other  way  do 
Christians  live  to  good  purpose.  It  is  only  thus  that  the 
religion  of  the  Cross  will  ever  have  its  proper  place  in 
human  society,  and  become  the  master-wheel  in  the 
great  machinery  of  human  life,  setting  a  thousand  other 
wheels  in  motion,  and  governing  the  whole. 

Another  characteristic  of  the  religion  of  the  Cross  is, 
it  is  full  of  Christ.  Christ  is  associated  with  all  its 
duties  and  all  its  hopes.  Christ  is  its  centre.  Christ  is 
its  living  Head,  and  it  lives  not,  any  more  than  an  am- 
putated limb,  when  severed  from  Christ.  Only  as  its 
roots  strike  downward,  and  clasp  this  Tree  of  Life,  does 
it  bear  fruit.  "  If  any  man  be  in  Christy  he  is  a  new 
creature."  The  Christian  is  nothing,  has  nothing, 
can  do  nothing,  without  Christ.  It  is  a  bastard  Chris- 
tianity that  owns  not  Christ  as  its  parent.  It  is  an  igno- 
rant Christianity  that  looks  not  to  Christ  as  its  Teacher, 
and  that  follows  not  his  teaching.  It  is  an  unpardoned 
Christianity  that  looks  not  to  Christ  as  its  Priest.  It  is 
an  impure  Christianity  that  is  not  washed  in  the  blood 
of  the  Lamb.  It  is  a  disloyal  Christianity  that  does  not 
recognize  Jesus  Christ  as  its  King,  and  that  hesitates  to 
obey  where  he  commands.  It  is  a  wayward  Christianity 
that  looks  not  to  Christ  as  its  example,  and  that  does  not 
follow  where  he  leads  the  way.  The  knowledge  of  the 
Christian  is  the  ''knowledge  of  Christ."     The  love  of 


240  THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS. 

the  Christian  is  "  the  love  of  Christ."  All  his  graces 
find  their  element  at  the  Cross.  Christ  crucified  is  his 
glory  and  joy.  Christ  in  his  uncreated  glory — Christ  in 
his  humanity — Christ  in  his  obedience  and  temptations — 
Christ  in  his  death  and  resurrection — Christ  in  his  king- 
dom and  on  his  throne — Christ  in  his  weakness  and  his 
power,  in  his  reproach  and  in  his  honor,  in  his  past  history 
and  his  coming  triumphs — is  the  mighty  magnet  that 
attracts  his  heart,  that  moves  and  fixes  it,  that  fills  it 
with  grateful  astonishment  and  devotion.  Christ,  in  the 
word  and  ordinances,  is  meat  indeed  to  him  when  he  is 
hungry,  and  when  he  is  thirsty  it  is  drink.  In  the  storm 
and  tempest,  Christ  is  his  hiding-place  ;  in  the  parched 
desert,  he  is  as  rivers  of  water  ;  under  the  noon-day  sun, 
he  is  as  the  shadoAv  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land. 
Christ  near  him  is  his  consolation  in  sorrow,  in  joy  his 
triumph.  Christ  in  him  is  the  hope  of  glory.  He  seeks 
supplies  only  from  the  fullness  of  Christ.  In  death 
Christ  is  his  life,  and  his  resurrection  in  the  grave.  When 
he  stands  in  the  judgment,  Christ  is  his  Judge ;  and 
through  interminable  ages  Christ  is  his  heaven.  The 
religion  of  the  Cross  is  full  of  Christ ;  and  this  renders  it 
so  peaceful  and  so  happy  a  religion,  and  imparts  to  it, 
not  indeed  the  paroxysms  of  ecstacy,  but  "  the  peace  of 
God  that  passeth  all  understanding."  It  begins  and  takes 
root  in  the  soul,  not  until  it  has  first  felt  the  burden  of 
sin  and  a  sense  of  its  condemnation;  not  until  it  has 
learned  to  cry  for  mercy  at  the  foot  of  the  throne ;  and 
not  until  it  has  found  relief  in  believing  in  the  Son  of 
God,  and  receiving  him  as  all  its  salvation  and  all  its 
desire.  Then  its  peace  is  as  a  river,  and  its  joys  as  the 
waves  of  the  sea.  It  is  the  counterpart  of  heaven.  It 
is  the  cup  of  joy  from  the  river  of  life,  which,  clear  as 
crystal,  flows  from  the  throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb. 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    CROSS.  241 

Allow  me  affectionately  to  ask,  Do  you  possess  this  re- 
ligion of  the  Cross  ?  You  may  not  be  a  favorite  with  the 
world  if  you  do ;  but  what  is  unutterably  more,  you  are 
the  friend  of  God.  This  religion  comes  to  you  as  a  suf- 
fering, perishing  creature,  and  would  make  you  happy 
by  making  you  holy.  Make  the  trial  of  everything  else 
if  you  will,  but  there  is  a  voice  within  your  own  bosoms 
that  dispels  the  delusion.  And  I  hear  your  own  response 
to  it :  No,  I  cannot  be  happy,  without  the  religion  of  the 
Cross  !  I  may  well  afford  to  forego  anything,  everything, 
rather  than  the  religion  of  the  Cross  ! 


11 


CHAPTER  XIV  . 

THE  CROSS  THE  TEST  OF  CHARACTER. 

The  eternal  state  of  men  is  decided  by  their  character. 
The  Scriptures  teach  us,  that  in  the  day  of  judgment 
God  "  will  render  to  every  man  according-  to  his  deeds  : 
to  them  who,  by  patient  continuance  in  well-doing, 
seek  for  glory,  and  honor,  and  immortaliy,  eternal  life  ;" 
while  to  them  "  that  are  contentious,  and  do  not  obey 
the  truth,  but  obey  unrighteousness,"  he  will  render 
"indignation  and  wrath,  tribulation  and  anguish."  Every 
good  man  will  then  receive  the  rewards  of  heaven,  and 
every  wicked  man  will  be  condemned  to  the  pains  of 
hell.  "  The  hour  is  coming  in  the  which  all  that  are  in 
their  graves  shall  hear  his  voice ;  they  that  have  done 
good  to  the  resurrection  of  life,  and  they  that  have  done 
evil  to  the  resurrection  of  damnation."  With  the  excep- 
tion of  those  who  die  in  infancy,  therefore,  all  have  the 
opportunity  of  forming  the  character  by  which  their  eter- 
nal state  is  to  be  determined.  Nor  is  there  anything  that 
exerts  so  powerful  an  influence  in  forming  the  characters 
of  men  as  the  Cross  of  Christ.  To  some,  it  is  the  savor 
of  life  unto  life  ;  to  others,  the  savor  of  death  unto  death. 
To  some,  the  Saviour  is  the  object  of  interest,  of  love,  of 
confidence,  and  of  glorying  ;  to  others,  he  is  the  object 
of  indifference,  and  then  of  hostility,  of  distrust,  and  they 
turn  away  their  faces  from  him  for  very  shame.     "  The 


THE  CROSS  THE  TEST  OF  CHARACTER.    243 

preaching  of  the  Cross  is  to  them  that  perish  foolishness, 
but  unto  them  which  are  saved  it  is  the  wisdom  of  God, 
and  the  power  of  God."  The  Cross  is  the  great  test  of 
character.  This  is  a  very  plain  truth,  and  needs  ilhis- 
tration  rather  than  proof. 

I  begin  this  illustration  by  remarking,  that  the  Cross 
presents  a  vivid  manifestation  of  those  excellences  of  the 
divine  character  to  which  all  wicked  men  are  hostile^  and 
in  which  all  good  men  have  high  complacency.  We  have 
already  contemplated  the  truth  that  the  "  glory  of  God 
shines  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ."  All  the  perfections 
of  the  divine  nature  there  appear  in  the  greatest  fullness, 
richness  and  splendor,  in  which  they  ever  have  been,  or 
ever  will  be,  revealed  to  men.  No  principle  in  the  moral 
constitution  of  men  is  more  obvious,  than  that  those 
objects  which  they  most  hate  are  most  hated  when  most 
clearly  seen ;  and  those  which  they  love,  when  most 
clearly  seen  are  loved  the  most.  Wicked  men  there  are 
who  are  sIoav  to  believe  that  they  are  the  enemies  of  God, 
because  they  have  not  deep  impressions  of  his  being,  nor 
just  conceptions  of  his  character;  nor  do  they  always 
admit  the  thought,  that  he  is  so  holy  that  he  cannot  look 
on  sin,  and  so  just  that  he  will  by  no  means  clear  the 
guilty.  And  good  men  there  are  who  doubt  their  love  to 
him,  because  they  do  not  always  enjoy  the  light  of  his 
countenance,  nor  behold  his  beauty  as  they  have  some- 
times seen  it.  The  Cross  brings  God  near  to  both. 
Wicked  men  may  see  the  low  estimation  in  which  they 
hold  the  God  of  heaven,  by  the  contempt  with  which 
they  regard  the  method  of  salvation  by  his  Son ;  and 
good  men  may  discover  the  high  esteem  they  cherish  for 
him,  by  the  high  regard  they  pay  to  him,  when,  in  the 
person  of  his  Son,  they  discover  him  to  be  glorious  in 
holiness,  fearful  in  praises,  doing  wonders.     Very  few 


244         THE    CROSS    THE    TEST    OF    CHARACTER. 

men  in  the  world  look  upon  themselves  as  such  enemies 
of  God  as  to  refuse  to  be  reconciled  to  him  on  any  terms  ; 
nor  is  it  until  they  discover  their  hostility  to  the  terms  of 
mercy  proposed  in  the  Gospel,  that  they  have  a  practical 
demonstration  that  their  enmity  is  vigorous  and  unrelent- 
ing. Very  many  good  men  know  not  how  much  they 
love  God,  until  they  enjoy  those  refreshing  and  repeated 
views  of  his  loveliness  which  are  so  often  imparted  to 
them  as  they  gather  round  the  Cross.  Wicked  men,  who 
enjoy  the  faithful  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  have  a  fair 
trial  of  what  is  in  their  hearts ;  for  the  Cross  is  continu- 
ally disturbing  them,  and  sometimes  excites  their  enmity 
almost  to  infuriateness.  They  are  often  led  to  see,  when 
contemplating  the  truths  of  the  Cross,  that  they  not  only 
have  not  the  love  of  God  in  them,  but  cherish  a  deeply- 
rooted  aversion  to  his  character,  and  give  way  to  blas- 
phemous thoughts,  if  not  to  thoughts  of  malice,  against 
the  Holy  One  of  Israel.  They  have  no  desire  to  exalt 
God,  or  to  see  him  exalted.  The  principal  reason  why 
they  do  not  fall  in  with  the  method  of  mercy  by  the 
Cross  is,  that  it  brings  glory  to  God  in  the  highest. 
While  good  men,  on  the  other  hand,  have  the  same  trial 
of  their  hearts,  by  the  same  Gospel ;  and  it  brings  out 
and  shows  their  love,  their  delight  in  God,  their  gratified 
and  grateful  love.  The  Cross  does  not  repel  their  hearts, 
but  attracts  them— attracts  them  to  God  their  supreme 
good  and  joy ;  and  if  there  is  a  thought  that  gives  more 
value  to  the  Cross  than  any  other,  it  is  that  it  secures  the 
highest  glory  to  God,  while  it  announces  peace  on  earth 
and  good-will  to  men.  The  only  reason  why  wicked 
men  continue  to  reject  the  Cross  is,  that  they  are  enemies 
to  God  ;  and  it  is  because  good  men  are  his  friends  that 
they  accept  it.  There  is  no  surer  test  of  character,  and 
no  greater  proof  that  a  man  is  the  enemy  of  God,  than 


THE    CROSS    THE    TEST    OF    CHARACTER.  245 

that  he  is  a  despiser  of  the  Cross ;  and  there  is  no  greater 
proof  than  attachment  to  the  Cross,  of  honest  and  su- 
preme attachment  to  the  God  of  heaven. 

There  is  another  fact  in  relation  to  the  Cross,  which 
shows  that  it  is  a  test  of  character.  It  establishes  claims 
which  wicked  men  are  riot  disposed  to  admit,  and  in  which 
good  men  cheerfully  acquiesce.  One  great  object  of  tlie 
death  of  Christ  was  to  enforce  the  claims  of  the  divine 
law  and  government,  and  give  its  sanction  to  the  divine 
authority  over  the  consciences  of  men.  Not  one  princi- 
ple of  the  divine  government  is  yielded  by  this  method  of 
salvation,  but  every  principle  of  it  vindicated  and  mag- 
nified. It  is  no  compromise  between  the  Lawgiver  and 
his  rebellious  subjects,  but  a  method  of  mercy  in  which 
the  majesty  of  the  law  is  protected,  and  emphasis  and 
efficacy  given  to  the  immutable  authority  of  the  great 
Creator  and  Governor  of  men.  This  is  one  reason  why 
wicked  men  are  not  pleased,  and  why  good  men  are 
pleased,  with  the  Cross  of  Christ.  It  proclaims  to  them 
that  God  is  their  owner ;  and  it  is  a  claim  which  the 
wicked  resist,  and  in  which  the  righteous  rejoice.  It 
proclaims  to  them  that  he  is  their  Lawgiver,  and  requires 
their  constant  obedience  and  their  whole  hearts ;  and 
while  the  wicked  complain  of  these  requisitions,  the 
righteous  regard  them  as  holy,  just  and  good.  The 
wicked  are  restive  under  this  omnipotent  authority,  but 
the  righteous  submit  to  it.  The  wicked  try  all  in  their 
power  to  break  loose  from  God,  and  to  throw  off  the  hal- 
lowed influence  of  the  Cross ;  while  the  righteous  press 
these  obligations  to  their  bosoms,  and  feel  inwardly 
thankful  that  there  is  a  power  in  the  Cross  to  bow  their 
wills  to  the  Supreme  Governor.  The  language  of  the 
wicked,  in  view  of  the  Cross,  is,  "  Depart  from  us,  for 
we  desire  not  the  knowledge  of  thy  ways  :"  the  language 


246         THE    CROSS    THE    TEST    OF    CHARACTER. 

of  the  righteous  is,  "  It  is  good  for  me  to  draw  nigh  unto 
God."  The  language  of  the  wicked  is,  "  Who  is  the 
the  Lord,  that  I  should  obey  his  voice  1"  the  language 
of  ihe  righteous  is,  "I  will  delight  myself  in  thy  statutes, 
I  will  not  forget  thy  word."  The  language  of  the  wicked 
is,  "  Wc  will  not  have  this  man  to  reign  over  us  :"  the 
language  of  the  righteous  is,  "  The  Lord  reigneth,  let 
the  earth  rejoice  !"  Wicked  men  indulge  the  pride  of 
human  intellect,  and  the  still  more  inflated  pride  of  the 
human  heart,  in  reasoning  against  the  claims  of  the  Cross  : 
they  even  boldly  affirm,  that  such  is  their  dependence 
on  God,  that  they  are  not  under  obligations  to  become 
Christians,  and  if  they  never  become  so  the  fault  will 
not  be  theirs  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  good  men  adore 
that  sovereign  grace  that  "makes  them  willing  in  the 
day  of  his  power,"  and  more  and  more,  as  long  as  they 
live,  wonder  why  this  great  salvation  is  thus  revealed 
unto  babes,  while  it  is  hidden  from  the  wise  and  prudent. 
Wicked  men  practically  treat  the  claims  of  the  Cross  on 
their  faith  and  obedience  very  differently  from  the  way 
in  which  they  are  treated  by  good  men  :  the  more 
clearly,  the  more  tenderly,  and  the  more  urgently  they 
are  enforced,  the  greater  rigor  and  point  do  they  give  to 
their  resistance  ;  while  the  conduct  of  good  men  shows, 
that  the  more  clearly  they  are  taught  these  claims,  and 
the  more  powerfully  they  are  enforced,  the  more  do  they 
honor  them.  The  truths  of  the  Cross,  and  its  wonderful 
mercy,  and  its  consequent  authority,  were  designed  to 
bring  the  great  subject  of  controversy  between  God  and 
men  within  a  narrow  compass,  and  to  an  obvious  issue ; 
and  those  who  do  not  fall  in  with  them,  fall  out  with 
them  with  all  their  hearts.  The  Cross  is  a  standing  me- 
morial to  the  universe,  that  God  is  right,  and  that  men 
are  wrong ;  and  therefore  the  righteous  are  its  friends, 


THE    CROSS    THE    TEST    OF    CHARACTER.  247 

and  the  wicked  are  its  enemies.  It  decides  the  question 
in  favor  of  truth  and  righteousness  ;  and  hence,  the  friends 
of  truth,  of  righteousness,  range  themselves  on  the  side 
of  it,  while  against  it  are  ranged  the  enemies  of  both. 
There  is  no  difficulty,  even  by  the  lights  of  nature,  and 
reason,  and  conscience,  in  seeing  that,  in  their  contest  for 
supremacy,  God  is  right  and  the  sinner  is  wrong  ;  much 
less  is  there  any  difficulty  in  seeing  this,  under  the 
stronger  lights  of  Gospel  truth  and  mercy.  Here  all  the 
obscurity  thrown  around  the  question,  by  the  pride  and 
obduracy  of  the  human  heart,  is  dissipated.  Every  man 
that  looks  intelligently  at  the  Cross  of  Christ,  must  see 
that  the  claims  of  the  God  of  heaven  are  just  such  as  they 
ought  to  be ;  just  such  as  all  men  ought  cordially  and 
cheerfully  to  acknowledge  ;  and  just  such,  that  the  cor- 
dial and  practical  recognition  of  them  decides  their  char- 
acter. It  is  not  easy  for  them  to  have  just  views  of  their 
own  character,  until  they  see  for  themselves  how  they 
treat  the  Cross  of  Christ.  Here  the  "  thoughts  of  many 
hearts  are  revealed,"  and  the  child  that  was  born  proves 
"  the  falling  and  the  rising  again  of  many."  The  chil- 
dren of  God  always  most  clearly  discover  their  filial  and 
obedient  spirit  when  nearest  the  Cross  ;  and  bad  men,  if 
once  awakened  from  their  indifference  and  stupidity,  and 
brought  near  the  Cross,  will  be  at  no  loss  to  see  that  they 
have  a  spirit  within  them  that  is  not  subject  to  the  Sove- 
reign of  the  universe.  Here  the  obligations  to  piety  come 
down  upon  them  with  such  force,  that  if  they  are  resisted, 
the  evidence  is  painfully  convincing,  overwhelming  to 
solicitude  and  distress,  that  they  are  without  God  in  the 
world. 

Another  fact  which  shows  that  the  Cross  is  a  test  of 
character  is,  that  it  implies  allegations  of  sinfulness  and 
ill-desert  which  the  wicked  deny,  hut  which  the  righteous 


248    THE  CROSS  THE  TEST  OF  CHARACTER. 

humbly  acknowledge.  The  Cross  speaks  a  language  in 
relation  to  the  sinfulness  and  ill-desert  of  men  which  can- 
not be  misunderstood.  "  If  one  died  for  all,  then  were 
all  dead."  "  If  these  things  be  done  in  the  green  tree, 
what  shall  be  done  in  the  dry?"  The  doctrine  of  sal- 
vation by  the  Cross,  is  the  doctrine  of  ruin  by  sin.  We 
find  the  only  cause  of  the  Cross  in  the  hopeless  state  of 
man  without  it.  That  mighty  movement  in  the  govern- 
ment of  God  is  the  highest  proof  that  man  was  sunk  so 
low  in  guilt  and  perditon,  that  no  finite  remedy  was 
adequate  to  his  deliverance.  The  greatness  and  malignity 
of  the  disease  are  discoverable  in  the  divinity  and  wonder- 
ful method  of  the  cure.  When  we  see  the  Eternal  Son 
of  God  smitten  by  the  sword  of  justice,  and  in  the  room 
and  place  of  man,  we  no  longer  doubt  that  man  is  vile, 
and  that  he  deserves  that  wrath  of  God,  which,  if  endured 
in  his  own  person,  would  sink  him  to  perdition.  This  is 
the  reason  why  wicked  men  are  so  unwilling  to  look  at 
the  Cross,  and  why  good  men  desire,  with  angels,  to  look 
into  the  combined  mysteries  of  its  justice  and  its  grace. 
This  is  the  reason  wicked  men  deny  a  divine  Saviour 
and  a  divine  atonement,  and  comfort  themselves  with  the 
thought,  that  inasmuch  as  their  Saviour  is  human  and 
his  death  has  none  of  the  properties  of  an  expiatory 
sacrifice,  their  sins  are  neither  many  nor  great,  and  deserve 
no  such  punishment  as  the  eternal  curse  of  a  violated  law. 
It  is  a  just  conclusion  from  false  premises,  and  only  shows 
how  repulsive  a  lesson  the  Cross  reads  to  a  mind  that 
does  not  submit  to  the  humbling  conviction  of  its  own 
sinfulness  and  ill-desert.  Good  men  have  been  taught  to 
feel  that  they  have  broken  the  law  of  God,  impugned 
the  rights  of  his  holy  government,  despised  his  authority, 
and  ruined  their  own  souls.  They  are  willing  to  feel 
the  force  of  this  conviction,  and  desire  to  feel  it  more  and 


THE  CROSS  THE  TEST  OF  CHARACTER.    249 

more  deeply.  Wicked  men  are  not  willing-  to  submit  to 
it,  but  resist  it  as  long  as  they  can  resist  it.  Good  men 
look  on  sin  as  no  trifle  ;  they  have  no  excuse  for  it,  and 
make  no  palliation.  Bad  men  look  upon  it  in  a  very  dif- 
ferent light,  and  excuse  and  palliate  it  as  a  small  affair. 
Good  men  are  sensible  that  they  deserve  to  suffer  all  that 
God  threatens— that  they  "  have  done  things  worthy  of 
death" — and  prostrate  themselves  at  the  footstool  of 
sovereign  grace  reigning  through  righteousness  by  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  while  wicked  men  reject  that  grace, 
because  they  are  not  convinced  of  their  ill-desert,  and 
do  not  feel  that  the  sentence  of  condemnation  gone  out 
against  them  is  right  and  just.  Good  men  feel  that 
there  would  be  no  cause  of  complaint  against  God,  should 
he  execute  the  penalty  of  his  law ;  wicked  men  com- 
plain that  he  is  a  hard  master  and  a  severe  judge.  Good 
men  wonder  how  he  can  save  ;  wicked  men  do  hot  see 
why  he  should  destroy.  Good  men  cherish  the  con- 
viction of  their  vileness  and  ill-desert;  wicked  men 
suppress  and  stifle  them.  Good  men  feel  alarmed  and 
suspicious  of  the  state  of  their  own  minds,  when  they  lose 
sight  of  their  own  sinfulness ;  wicked  men  feel  a  load 
thrown  off  from  their  consciences,  and  live  at  ease  and  in 
security,  when  they  can  forget  it.  Good  men  feel 
ashamed  and  humbled  before  God,  and  the  more  so 
that  "he  is  pacified  towards  them  ;"  while  wicked  men 
remain  hardened  in  their  pride.  This  is  one  reason  why 
these  two  diflferent  classes  of  men  regard  the  Cross  with 
widely  different  emotions.  It  discloses  their  true  char- 
acter. It  detects  the  deceptions  of  the  wicked,  and  dis- 
covers the  honesty  of  the  righteous.  The  Cross  is  ihe 
bloody  proof  of  human  guilt,  which  can  never  be  erased 
from  the  records  of  the  universe,  and  which,  wherever 
11* 


250    THE  CROSS  THE  TEST  OF  CHARACTER. 

it  is  seen,  and  as  long"  as  it  is  remembered,  enforces  the 
truth  that  the  sinner  deserves  to  die. 

The  Cross  is  also  a  test  of  character,  inasmuch  as  it 
rejects  the  confidences  on  luhich  wicked  men  rely,  and  which 
good  men  have  been  taught  to  renounce.  Wicked  men 
often  suffer  imder  the  struggles  of  natural  conscience,  and 
the  convincing  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They  have 
some  partial  view  of  their  sins  and  their  danger,  espe- 
cially in  the  contemplation  of  their  overt  and  more  gross 
transgressions.  At  such  seasons  they  always  have  re- 
course to  sources  of  confidence  which  the  Cross  condemns. 
They  are  very  apt  to  compound  with  God,  by  proposing 
that  their  debts  to  his  justice  should  be  liquidated  by 
paying  a  part  of  them.  They  are  willing  to  give  up  one 
sin  for  the  sake  of  indulging  another ;  or  to  pay  a  part 
of  the  debt  themselves,  and,  for  the  balance,  to  draw 
upon  the  merits  of  Christ.  Some  concessions  they  are 
willing  to  make ;  but  God  must  come  to  some  terms  of 
agreement  with  them,  and  make  some  abatement  from 
his  original  and  rightful  claims.  They  persuade  them- 
selves that  they  are  able  to  make  some  amends  for  their 
transgressions  by  works  of  righteousness  which  they  have 
done,  or  purpose  to  perform,  rather  than,  after  all  they 
have  done,  and  the  best  they  can  do,  come  to  the  Cross 
just  as  they  are,  and  accept  the  salvation  of  the  Gospel 
as  the  chief  of  sinners.  They  think  highly  of  their  moral 
conduct  and  outward  observance  of  the  duties  of  religion, 
and  at  heart  feel  that  they  give  them  a  sort  of  claim  upon 
the  divine  mercy.  They  are  offended  with  the  Cross 
because  it  frowns  upon  all  such  sources  of  confidence, 
and  requires  them,  however  blameless  their  outAvard  mo- 
rality, and  however  exact  and  punctilious  their  forms  of 
religion,  to  renounce  them  all,  and  place  all  their  confi- 


THE    CROSS    THE    TEST    OF    CHARACTER.  251 

dence  and  hope  in  its  own  complete  and  entire  redemption. 
They  feel  it  to  be  a  hardship  that  they  may  do  nothing 
to  merit  salvation,  or  at  least  that  they  may  not  do  some- 
thing- to  induce  God  to  show  tliem  mercy.  "  Being  igno- 
rant of  God's  righteousness,  and  going  about  to  establish 
their  own  righteousness,  they  refuse  to  submit  themselves 
to  God's  righteousness,"  as  revealed  in  the  Gospel  of  his 
Son.  They  think  to  purchase  what  God  freely  gives,  and 
by  such  fancied  equivalents  as  are  abomination  in  his  sight, 
and  which,  even  were  they  less  abominable,  were  no 
equivalent  at  all.  This  is  one  of  the  ways  of  compound- 
ing with  God,  and  of  rejecting  the  Cross,  which,  while 
it  has  been  reduced  to  a  system  by  the  Church  of  Rome, 
nevertheless  finds  a  place  in  every  natural  heart.  Men 
are  all  Romanists  b}^  nature,  because  they  are  all  by  na- 
ture the  enemies  of  the  Cross  of  Christ.  But  this  whole 
doctrine  of  human  merit,  w^hether  found  in  the  systems 
of  Rome,  or  more  covertly  cherished  in  the  bosom  of  the 
self-righteous  Protestant,  is  altogether  derogatory  to  the 
merit  and  sufficiency  of  the  Saviour's  satisfaction.  It 
were  strange  to  call  that  forgiveness,  which  men  pro- 
cure, either  in  whole  or  in  part,  by  their  own  merit ;  or 
to  ascribe  all  the  glory  to  the  Cross,  when  men  them- 
selves "have  whereof  to  glory."  Just  the  opposite  of 
all  this,  are  the  views  and  affections  of  the  real  Christian. 
He  looks  upon  the  work  of  Christ  alone  as  furnishing  the 
grounds  and  causes  of  his  justification,  and  attributes  the 
forgiveness  of  sins,  and  restoration  to  the  divine  favor  and 
eternal  life,  exclusively  to  the  meritorious  obedience  and 
atoning  death  of  the  Cross.  A  godly  man,  and  one  who 
is  truly  humble,  and  of  a  contrite  heart,  resorts  to  nothing 
else.  He  renounces  every  other  confidence ;  places  his 
sole  dependence  upon  Jesus  Christ ;  glories  in  him  as 
the  "Lord  his  righteousness;"  looks  to  him  for  the  sup- 


252  THE    CROSS    THE    TEST    OF    CHARACTER. 

ply  of  his  every  want ;  and  finds  in  his  love  and  grace  a 
stimulus  to  every  duty,  support  under  every  trial,  and 
the  progressive  mortification  of  in-dwelling  sin.  His  con- 
science is  pacified,  and  he  has  the  inward  sense  of  par- 
doning mercy,  only  from  the  blood  of  the  Cross.  Under 
the  consciousness  of  his  daily  infirmities,  his  resource  is 
the  same  with  that  to  which  he  first  repaired,  as  a  peni- 
tent sinner,  under  the  conviction  of  his  awful  and 
aggravated  guilt.  He  has  but  this  one  hope,  that  Jesus 
Christ  "  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  that  come 
unto  God  by  him;"  he  has  but  this  confidence,  that 
"the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin;"  he 
has  but  this  cleansing,  that  "  he  has  washed  his  robes 
and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  ;"  and  he 
has  but  this  song,  "  Unto  him  that  loved  us,  and  washed 
us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood — unto  him  be  glory  and 
dominion  forever!"  And  thus  the  Cross  puts  to  the 
test  the  characters  of  men,  by  rejecting  the  confidences  on 
which  the  wicked  rely,  and  which  the  righteous  renounce ; 
and  because,  while  it  shows  that  there  is  a  class  of  men 
who  have  fled  for  refuge  to  lay  hold  "  of  the  hope  set 
before  them,"  who  have  renounced  all  dependence  on 
their  holier  services,  and  yet  have  found  "joy  and  peace 
in  believing,"  and  "  living  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of 
God,"  it  at  the  same  time  not  less  certainly  indicates  a 
class  of  men  who  are  thankless  for  this  grace,  Avho,  by 
the  unhallowed  association  of  other  confidences  with  that 
which  rests  only  on  this  great  sacrifice,  are  guilty  of  the 
sacrilegious  impeachment  of  the  merit  and  sufficiency 
of  him  who  was  crucified. 

Nor  is  the  Cross  less  a  test  of  character  also,  in  that  it 
reveals  a  happiness,  which  is  very  differently  suited  to  the 
taste  of  men,  as  they  themselves  are  holy  or  unholy.  The 
characters  of  men  are  decided  by  those  things,  in  the 


THE    CROSS    THE    TEST    OF    CHARACTER.  353 

pursuit  and  enjoyment  of  which  they  find  their  highest 
happiness.     There  is  a  spiritual  rehsh  and  taste  in  the 
heart  of  every  good  man,  that  finds  its  gratification  in 
objects  that  God  approves ;   and  there  is  a  sinful  relish 
and  taste  in  the  heart  of  every  wicked  man  that  finds  its 
gratification  in  objects  that  God  condemns.     There  is  a 
natural  taste,  common  both  to  the  righteous  and  the 
wicked,  which  has  no  moral  character,  and  by  which  they 
enjoy  the  beauty  of  natural  objects,  and  are  gratified  in 
the  contemplation  of  a  finished  composition,  a  splendid 
poem,  an  elegant  garb,   a  polished  demeanor,  a  fine 
painting,  or  an  exquisite  piece  of  music  ;  and  there  is  a 
moral  taste,  which  renders  men  sensible  to  the  beauties 
of  holiness,  to    the   excellence   of  God's  word,    to  the 
pleasures  of  religion,  to  the  glory  of  the  Cross,  and  to  the 
blessedness  of  heaven.     To  some  persons,  these  things 
have  the  strongest  attractions,  and  in  their  view  possess 
the  greatest  loveliness  ;  while  to  others,  they  have  no  at- 
tractions at  all,  and  are  viewed  with  indifference,  if  not 
with  disgust.     It  is  not  a  blind  instinct  for  which  neither 
of  these  classes  of  men  can  specify  any  sufficient  cause  ; 
but   consists   in    those   moral   principles    and    affections 
which,  in  a  good  man,  are  the  result  of  renewing  grace, 
and  are   cherished   by    the    frequent    contemplation  of 
spiritual  things,  and  which  in  a  wicked  man  are   the 
result  of  his  native  sinfulness,  and  are  strengthend  by  his 
familiarity  with   things    that   are  unspiritual  and  evil. 
Now  the  Cross  is  a  sure   and  infallible  test  both  of  this 
spiritual  and  unspiritual  character.     It  touches  a  string 
to  which  every  holy  lieart  vibrates,  and  to  which  every 
unholy  one  is  discordant.     It  presents  sources  of  happi- 
ness that  are  attractive  to  the  former,  and  to  the  latter 
repulsive.     The  sources  of  haj^piness  which  the  Cross 
reveals,  are  spiritual.     They  are  the  discovery  of  God 


254  THE    CROSS    THE    TEST    OF    CHARACTER. 

and  the  enjoyment  of  God  in  everything— in  his  works, 
in  his  providence,  and  in  his  word.  They  are  those  ex- 
ercises of  genuine  piety  themselves,  which  are  the  fruit 
of  the  Spirit.  They  are  God's  word  and  ordinances  ;  the 
praise,  the  prayer,  the  communion  and  fellowship  which 
he  has  established  in  his  church,  and  where  his  people 
sit  at  his  feet  and  behold  his  glory.  They  are  the  duties 
which  God  requires,  rendering  "the  ways  of  wisdom 
pleasantness  and  all  her  paths  peace  ;"  neither  burdening 
the  conscience  by  inward  remorse,  nor  dishonoring  the 
character  by  the  blush  of  shame.  They  are  the  high 
ambition  of  living  to  some  good  purpose  in  the  world ; 
of  living,  not  to  self,  but  to  him  who  died,  and  laboring 
to  be  accepted  of  him.  They  are  in  aiming  at  the  high- 
est end  at  which  a  creature  can  aim — "  to  glorify  God 
and  enjoy  him  forever."  They  are  even  in  the  very 
trials  to  which  the  Christian  is  ordained ;  because  they 
are  for  the  trial  of  his  faith,  and  that  he  may  learn  what 
and  where  is  his  stronghold  in  the  day  of  trouble,  and 
find  by  his  own  experience  that  "  all  things  work  to- 
gether for  good  to  them  that  love  God,  and  are  the  called 
according  to  his  purpose."  They  are  in  retrospect  and 
in  anticipation  :  in  retrospect,  as  he  looks  back  upon  all 
the  way  in  which  the  Lord  has  led  him,  and  with  every 
recollected  step  and  incident,  magnifying  the  grace  and 
faithfulness  of  his  Father  who  is  in  heaven ;  and  in  an- 
ticipation, as  he  looks  forward  to  victory  over  the  foe, 
even  to  sin,  death  and  the  grave.  They  are  the  hopes 
and  blessed  assurances  which  the  Cross  imparts,  of  the 
hour  when,  through  him  who  is  the  resurrection  and  the 
life,  "  death  shall  be  swallowed  up  in  victory,"  and  he 
shall  possess  "  salvation  with  eternal  glory."  They  are 
the  "  life  and  immortality  brought  to  light  in  the  Gos- 
pel;"  the  heaven  where  God  dwells,  where  Jesus  reigns. 


THE  CROSS  THE  TEST  OF  CHARACTER.    255 

where  all  the  holy  tribes  are  assembled,  where  the  in- 
habitant shall  no  more  say,  I  am  sick ;  where  sin  shall 
never  enter,  and  where  all  tears  shall  be  wiped  from  every 
eye.  Such  is  the  blessedness  which  the  Cross  discloses, 
and  of  which  every  holy  mind  has  a  quick  discernment, 
and  delicacy  and  readiness  of  perception,  a  faculty  of  en- 
joyment, not  only  unknown  to  the  unholy,  but  from 
which  they  instinctively  revolt.  They  have  no  power 
of  receiving  pleasure  from  such  objects  and  pursuits. 
They  scarcely  excite  their  attention,  for  they  have  no 
disposition  that  is  congenial  with  their  nature.  They 
cannot  enter  into  them  ;  they  are  not  suited  to  their  taste. 
Their  joys  are  elsewhere.  They  are  not  found  at  the 
Cross,  but  are  crucified  there,  because  there  the  "  world 
is  crucified  to  them,  and  they  to  the  world." 

Let  the  reader  then  try  his  own  character,  by  bringing 
it  to  the  test  of  the  Cross.  "  What  think  ye  of  Christ  1" 
As  you  think  of  him,  so  you  think  of  God ;  so  will  your 
views  of  yourselves  be  in  accordance  with  his  word,  or 
in  opposition  to  it ;  and  so  will  you  think  and  feel  toward 
his  kingdom  in  the  world,  and  your  own  duty  toward 
death  and  heaven.  The  Cross  is  the  great  test.  God 
designed  it  to  be  so,  and  so  it  has  proved  in  every  age  of 
the  world.  The  nations  that  have  received  it  have  been 
favored  of  God,  while  those  who  have  rejected  it  have 
perished  from  the  way,  though  his  wrath  has  "  been 
kindled  but  a  little."  The  individuals  who  have  gloried 
in  it  now  live  and  reign  with  their  once  crucified  Lord, 
while  those  to  whom  it  has  been  a  rock  of  offence  have 
stumbled  over  it  into  perdition.  Capernaum  perished 
for  her  rejection  of  Christ;  Chorazin  and  Bethsaida  per- 
ished for  their  rejection  of  Christ.  For  many  a  long 
century,  the  Jews  have  been  given  over  to  blindness  and 
perdition,  for  their  rejection  of  Christ.     Nor  is  there  any 


256    THE  CROSS  THE  TEST  OF  CHARACTER. 

difference  between  Jew  and  Greek  j  for,  be  he  Jew  or 
Gentile,  "  he  that  beheveth  not  on  the  Son,  shall  not  see 
life,  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  in  him."  God  sent 
his  Son  into  the  world,  to  try  the  characters  of  men. 
That  Son  of  Mary  has  been  set  forth  crucified,  and  his 
Cross  has  been  lifted  up  before  your  eyes,  in  order  to 
ascertain,  and  to  give  you,  and  the  world,  and  the  uni- 
verse the  opportunity  of  ascertaining,  your  true  character. 
Nor  may  it  be  forgotten,  that  it  is  impossible  for  you  to 
be  indifferent  to  the  Cross  of  Christ.  No  truth  is  more 
universal  or  more  obvious  than  this,  or  more  clearly 
taught  throughout  the  Gospel,  or  that  more  certainly 
results  from  the  whole  system  of  its  doctrines.  The  world 
is  full  of  those  who  are  not  idth  Christ.  They  take  no  in- 
terest in  the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  nor  in  the  great  concerns 
of  his  kingdom.  They  can  scarcely  be  said  to  know  what 
they  are,  nor  do  they  care  to  know.  But  this  is  something 
more  than  absolute  indifference.  Men  are  too  much  the 
creatures  of  feeling  and  sensibility,  to  regard  such  an  object 
as  the  Cross  with  perfect  apathy.  Their  character  and 
interests  are  too  much  affected  by  it,  for  time  and  eternity, 
for  them  to  contemplate  it  with  an  empty  and  barren  neu- 
trality. What  seems  to  be  their  indifference  toward  it, 
shows  that  it  is  a  stumbling-block  to  their  proud  and  selfish 
minds :  though  unavowedly ,  yet  are  they  secretly  hostile  to 
its  claims.  Refusing  to  love  Jesus  Christ,  is  something  more 
than  neutrality.  It  is  disobedience  ;  it  is  rebellion.  It 
may  not  be  open  war,  but  it  contains  all  the  seeds  and 
principles  of  opposition  and  outrage.  It  is  secret  aliena- 
tion to  the  character  of  the  blessed  Saviour,  to  his  doc- 
trines, his  government  and  Gospel.  Nor  does  it  require 
much  to  awaken  and  call  it  into  action.  It  is  an  equa- 
nimity that  is  easily  disturbed,  and  changed  to  open 
hostility.      Sooner   or   later,   all   such  persons  will   be 


THE    CROSS    THE    TEST    OF    CHARACTER.  257 

brought  to  feel  that  they  can  no  longer  shut  themselves 
up  in  cold  indifference  and  neutrality.  They  will  be 
pressed  to  decide  one  way  or  the  other  ;  and  because  they 
are  not  for  the  Cross,  they  will  have  reached  the  point 
where  their  neutrality  terminates,  and  be  found  against  it. 
Nor  ought  the  opposite  phase  of  this  truth  to  be  over- 
looked. "  He  that  is  not  against  us,"  says  that  same 
Saviour,  "  is  on  our  part."  The  Cross  is  not  the  stand- 
ard of  a  party,  but  of  Christianity ;  it  is  not  the  badge 
of  the  exclusive  few,  but  of  the  whole  regenerated  and 
Christian  world.  I  bless  God,  that  however  much 
men  may  differ  in  other  things,  if  they  do  not  fall  out 
with  the  Cross,  they  are  Christians.  The  Cross  has 
attractions  powerful  enough  to  draw  and  bind  good 
men  together  of  every  name.  We  may  not  condemn 
men  who  "follow  not  us,"  so  long  as  they  follow  the 
Cross.  If  they  at  heart  believe  in  Christ,  if  they  are 
doing  his  work,  if  they  are  fighting  under  his  banner, 
and  for  the  cause  and  truth  of  the  Saviour,  and  the  exten- 
sion of  his  kingdom  in  the  world,  they  are  most  surely  not 
his  enemies.  No  department  of  Christ's  kingdom  is 
without  its  imperfections ;  and  if  his  professed  followers  are 
judged  by  these,  that  charity  that  "  hopeth  all  things  " 
will  have  little  scope  for  some  of  its  most  heaven-born 
exercises.  Amid  all  the  multitude  of  his  professed 
followers,  the  Son  of  God  would  be  found  alone,  if  none 
were  recognized  as  his  disciples  save  those  who  are  fault- 
less. God  is  more  charitable  than  man,  because  he  is 
more  holy.  The  more  of  the  true  spirit  of  Christ  we 
ourselves  possess,  the  more  cautious  and  reluctant  shall 
we  be  to  deny  that  spirit  to  others.  We  may  have  an 
honest  conviction  and  decided  preference  for  our  own 
peculiarities,  and  so  may  others  have  the  same  conviction 
and  preference  for  their  peculiarities  ;  while  both  they  and 


258    THE  CROSS  THE  TEST  OF  CHARACTER. 

we  should  rejoice  more  abundantly  in  those  great  pecu- 
liarities of  the  Gospel,  that  are  common  to  all  the  follow- 
ers of  the  Lamb.  I  look  with  great  solicitude  on  the 
spiritual  condition  of  those  who  feel  at  liberty  to  set 
themselves  up  as  a  perfect  and  complete  model  to  all 
other  churches,  and  who  can  allow  themselves  to  say, 
or  even  to  feel,  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  belonging 
to  Jesus  Christ  out  of  their  own  communion.  I  know 
of  few  greater  errors,  either  in  doctrine  or  practice,  than 
this  unchurching  system.  Many  a  name  will  be  fo\md 
written  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life,  that  is  not  recorded 
on  their  church  register.  It  is  not  necessary  to  be 
associated  either  with  them,  or  with  us,  in  order  to  be 
associated  with  Christ.  It  is  not  their  name,  or  ours, 
that  men  must  confess,  but  the  name  of  Christ. 

Let  me  close  this  chapter  with  one  more  thought. 
The  fault  is  not  in  the  Cross,  if  any  of  my  readers  should 
finally  perish.  The  fault  will  be  somewhere.  "  The 
curse  causeless  doth  not  come."  And  it  will  be  tremen- 
dous fault,  that  issues  in  the  everlasting  perdition  of  the 
soul.  It  will  be  guilt  that  the  ocean  of  eternity  cannot 
wash  away,  nor  its  fires  burn  out.  It  will  not  be  the 
fault  of  the  Cross.  No,  never !  The  Cross  has  no  such 
responsibility.  The  fault  is  in  those  who  reject  it.  And 
let  those  whose  character  does  not  bear  the  test  of  the 
Cross,  think  a  moment  what  a  sin  it  is  to  reject  Him  who 
came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,  and  who 
drank  the  bitter  cup  that  they  might  not  drink  it !  0  ye 
who  neglect  this  great  salvation  !  this  is  the  sin  which 
lies  at  your  door.  Do  not  repel  the  charge.  Your  own 
consciences  are  witnesses  against  you.  Your  heart  does 
not  beat  for  Jesus  Christ.  The  fault  is  yours — it  is  yours 
who  reject  the  Cross — it  will  forever  be  yours.  That 
heart,  that  hand,  perpetrates  the  dreadful  deed  ! — a  deed 


THE  CROSS  THE  TEST  OF  CHARACTER.    259 

one  day  to  be  bewailed — the  hour  forever  embittered  that 
looks  back  upon  it ;  a  deed  to  be  regretted  and  wept  over, 
and  the  day  ten  thousand  times  cursed  that  gave  being 
to  the  miserable  man  that  perpetrated  it.  It  is  but  a  little 
while,  and  you  must  descend  to  the  tomb.  No  tidings 
from  the  Cross  will  break  the  silence  of  that  narrow 
house,  and  no  spirit  of  mercy  ever  enter  that  world  of 
everlasting  retribution.  Christ  will  live  and  reign  long 
after  you  are  dead.  His  Cross  will  triumph,  though  you 
reject  it  and  make  your  bed  in  hell.  It  can  triumph 
without  you,  for  you  are  but  a  poor  worm.  But  it  would 
fain  carryyou  along  in  its  triumphs  ;  nor  will  anything 
shut  you  out  from  this  honor  and  blessedness,  but  your 
own  voluntary  and  cherished  unbelief.  You  must  go  far, 
far  away,  to  put  yourself  beyond  the  reach  of  its  attrac- 
tions. You  may  perhaps  be  far,  far  away,  even  now. 
But  even  now  you  can  see  it  in  the  distance,  and  look 
toward  it  and  live.  Far  off  as  you  are,  you  may  yet 
*'  smite  upon  your  breast  and  say,  God  be  merciful  to  me 
a  sinner,"  and  look  toward  it  with  hope. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

THE     CROSS    THE    PRESERVATION    FROM    FINAL    APOSTACY. 

Such  is  the  attraction  of  the  Cross,  that  what  it  once 
secures  it  holds  fast  forever.  Those  who  are  once  inter- 
ested in  it  never  lose  that  interest.  Once  attracted  to  it 
by  a  true  and  heaven-imparted  faith,  they  never  so  break 
the  bond  as  to  be  ultimately  severed  from  Christ,  and 
finally  perish.     There  is  no  falling  away  from  the  Cross. 

This  is  a  truth  which  is  liable  to  perversion  and  abuse, 
and  ought  therefore  to  be  stated  with  some  clearness  and 
caution.  There  is  no  doubt  that  not  a  few  who  profess 
to  have  received  Jesus  Christ,  and  are  for  a  time  out- 
wardly conformed  to  the  requisitions  of  the  Gospel,  do 
ultimately  apostatize  and  perish.  To  deny  this  forms  no 
part  of  the  truth  we  propose  to  establish.  Though,  in  a 
well-instructed  community,  there  are  comparatively  few 
who,  when  they  make  a  profession  of  religion,  either 
intend  or  expect  to  renounce  their  profession,  there  are, 
notwithstanding,  very  many  who  profess  religion  with- 
out possessing  it,  and  who,  on  that  account,  apostatize 
from  their  profession  and  perish.  The  Word  of  God,  as 
well  as  melancholy  facts  which  have  taken  place  under 
our  own  observation,  show  us  that  the  professed  disciples 
of  the  Cross  have  become  apostates,  and  have  renounced 
both  the  principles  and  the  duties  of  Christianity,  beyond 
recovery.     But  it  is  no  impeachment  of  the  efficacy  of 


THE  CROSS  THE  PRESERVATION,  &c.     261 

the  Cross,  that  men  whom  it  never  held  at  all  it  does 
not  continue  to  hold.  Persons  of  this  description  were 
never  at  heart  believers  in  its  truths  and  power.  It  is  per- 
fectly natural  for  such  persons  to  fall  away,  even  from 
all  their  false  appearances  of  godliness.  It  has  only 
"  happened  unto  them  according-  to  the  true  proverb,  the 
dog  is  turned  to  his  own  vomit  again,  and  the  sow  that 
was  washed  to  her  wallowing  in  the  mire."  The  exalted 
Redeemer  will  say  to  all  such  deceivers,  when  he  comes 
in  the  clouds  of  heaven  to  judge  the  world,  "  I  never 
knew  you."  The  true  account  of  all  persons  of  this 
description  is  given  by  the  apostle  in  a  single  sentence  : 
"  They  went  out  from  us,  but  they  were  not  of  us;  for 
if  they  had  been  of  its,  they  would  no  doubt  have  contin- 
ued with  us :  but  they  went  out,  that  it  might  be  made 
manifest  that  they  were  not  all  of  us." 

Nor  is  it  any  part  of  the  truth  we  propose  to  substan- 
tiate, that  true  believers  in  Christ  may  not  and  do  not 
fall  into  great  sins.  Not  only  are  all  of  them  imperfect 
in  holiness,  but  frequently  lose  so  much  of  the  spirit  and 
power  of  godliness,  as  to  bring  deep  reproach  upon  the 
sacred  name  by  which  they  are  called.  Inward  declen- 
sion almost  always  leads  to  outward  negligence ;  while 
an  uncircumspect  and  untender  walk  and  conversation, 
are  very  apt  to  degenerate  into  some  of  the  forms  of  open 
wickedness.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  often  thus  grieved 
away  from  the  bosoms  of  his  own  people ;  and  where  that 
fountain  of  living  water  within  them  is  at  its  ebb,  or  for 
a  time  diverted  into  other  channels,  not  only  do  the 
plants  of  righteousness  wither,  but  noxious  weeds  spring 
up  in  their  stead.  Where  spiritual  activity  and  diligence 
are  superseded  by  indifference  and  sloth,  where  vain 
desires  and  inordinate  affections  after  this  world  shut  out 
the  love  of  God,  the  fellowship  of  the  soul  with  Him  is 


262       THE  CROSS  THE  PRESERVATION 

interrupted,  and  the  believer  for  a  time  exhibits  little  evi- 
dence that  he  has  ever  passed  from  death  unto  life.  Such 
defections  form  no  part  of  the  Christian  character ;  and 
while  from  all  such  defections  every  believer  is  ultimately 
recovered,  from  none  of  them  is  he  infallibly  sure  of 
being-  uniformly  and  always  preserved.  The  Scriptures 
nowhere  represent  his  condition  as  such,  that  in  conse- 
quence of  his  union  to  Christ,  he  is  in  no, danger  of  sin- 
ning. Their  admonitions  imply  directly  the  reverse  of 
this.  "  Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth,  take  heed 
lest  he  fall."  "  Take  heed,  brethren,  lest  there  be  in  any 
of  you  an  evil  heart  of  unbelief  in  departing  from  the 
living  God."  "  Let  us  therefore  fear,  lest  a  promise 
being  left  us  of  entering  into  his  rest,  any  of  you  should 
seem  to  come  short  of  it."  "  Let  us  labor  to  enter  into 
that  rest,  lest  any  man  fall  after  the  same  example  of 
unbelief."  "  Thou  standest  by  faith :  be  not  high- 
minded,  but  fear ;  for  if  God  spared  not  the  natural 
branches,  take  heed  lest  he  spare  not  thee."  Admoni- 
tions like  these  would  be  out  of  place,  if  there  were  no 
danger.  If  there  ever  was  a  man  who  was  warranted, 
from  the  strength  and  ardor  of  his  piety,  and  from  the 
assurance  of  his  faith,  to  live  above  this  cautious  and 
watchful  spirit,  that  man  was  the  Apostle  Paul.  But,  so 
far  from  bordering  on  presumption,  his  language  is,,  and 
in  perfect  consistency  with  his  conscious  glorifying  in  the 
Cross,  "  I  keep  under  my  body,  and  bring  it  into  subjec- 
tion, lest  by  any  means,  when  I  have  preached  to  others, 
I  myself  should  be  a  cast-away."  There  is  nothing  in 
the  nature  of  holiness  to  keep  good  men  from  falling ; 
for  if  there  were,  neither  the  fallen  angels,  nor  our  first 
parents,  would  ever  have  lost  their  primeval  integrity.  It 
would  be  the  highest  arrogance  for  those,  who  have  per- 
fectly conclusive  evidence  that  they  are  accepted  of  God, 


FRO:sl    FINAL    APOSTACY.  263 

to  yield  to  the  temptation  tliat  they  are  in  no  danger  of 
falling  into  grievous  apostacies.  Everything  is  leagued 
against  them,  from  within  and  from  without:  a  heart  des- 
perately wicked  and  deceitful  above  all  things — an  allur- 
ing and  a  threatening  world — and  a  powerful,  malignant 
and  subtile  adversary,  watching  every  avenue  through 
which  he  may  enter  and  lead  them  captive  at  his  will.  If 
they  do  not  fall,  it  is  not  because  there  is  no  danger  of  fall- 
ing; for  they  often  stand  on  slippery  places,  and  where  it 
wants  but  little  to  precipitate  them  into  the  gulf  below. 
It  is  with  extreme  caution  that  they  do  not  turn  aside 
from  the  way,  and  with  great  diiHculty  that  they  are  res- 
cued from  the  pit.    "  The  righteous  are  scarcely  saved." 

But  while  all  this  is  true,  and  important  truth,  it  is  also 
true  that  "  the  righteous  shall  hold  on  his  way,  and  he 
that  hath  clean  hands  shall  wax  stronger  and  stronger." 
What  the  Cross  of  Christ  has  done  for  all  true  believers, 
it  has  done  effectually  and  forever.  While  many  who 
profess  the  religion  of  Christ,  and  appear  outwardly  con- 
formed to  it,  will  apostatize  and  perish ;  and  while  true 
believers  may,  for  a  time,  be  left  to  themselves  and  fall 
into  sin,  and  are  always  in  a  condition  which  calls  for 
unsleeping  vigilance  ;  yet  will  they  persevere  in  holiness  to 
the  end,  and  be  infallibly  preserved  from  final  apostacy  and 
perdition.  This  is  what  I  mean,  when  I  say  there  is  no 
falling  away  from  the  Cross. 

Before  I  call  your  attention  to  the  evidence  by  which 
this  truth  is  substantiated,  it  is  important  to  a  just  view 
of  this  truth  itself,  to  show  hy  what  power,  or  influence, 
believers  are  thus  preserved,  and  enabled  to  persevere.  On 
this  part  of  the  subject,  I  desire  to  do  honor  to  the  Cross, 
and  ascribe  all  glory  to  its  atoning  blood,  its  sanctifying 
power,  and  its  unchanging  faithfulness.  No  creature, 
were  he  ever  so  holy,  can  persevere  in  holiness,  inde- 


264        THE  CROSS  THE  rRESERVATION 

pendently  of  divine  power.  It  belongs  to  the  nature  of 
creatures,  to  "  live,  and  move,  and  have  their  being-  in 
God."  Gabriel  does  not  possess  a  holy  thought  independ- 
ently of  his  Maker.  The  unremitting  and  powerful 
energy  of  the  great  Supreme  is  the  immediate  cause  of 
all  the  holiness,  perfected  and  continued  as  it  is  with- 
out intermission  and  forever,  of  cherubim  and  seraphim 
in  the  upper  Sanctuary.  Divine  power  is  as  necessary 
for  the  preservation  of  right  principles  and  right  affec- 
tions in  the  heart,  as  for  their  original  existence. 
Firm  in  principle  and  vigorous  in  action  as  the  faith  of 
Christians  may  be — nay,  though  it  were  a  thousand  fold 
more  deeply  seated  than  it  is,  and  though  it  uniformly 
pervaded  and  consecrated  all  their  powers  and  conduct — 
it  is  not  so  incorruptible  and  unchanging  that,  if  forsaken 
of  God,  they  will  not  fall  and  perish.  Their  dependence 
on  all-powerful  grace  is  one  of  the  sweetest  and  most 
cheering  truths  in  all  the  Bible,  and  is  most  deeply  and 
at  the  same  time  most  gratefully  felt,  when  they  them- 
selves have  most  of  the  spirit  of  that  blessed  Book.  Take 
from  them  their  dependence  on  God,  and  they  sink  in 
despair.  They  are  "  kept  by  the  power  of  God,  through 
faith,  unto  salvation."  Who,  that  is  acquainted  with  his 
own  heart,  has  not  felt  how  much  more  in  accordance 
with  his  own  depraved  desires  to  give  way  than  to  resist, 
and  to  yield  the  conflict  with  his  spiritual  enemies,  rather 
than  maintain  it !  The  best  of  saints  would  be  the  w^orst 
of  sinners,  without  preventing  and  sanctifying  grace. 
Of  all  the  disasters  a  good  man  deplores,  this  is  the  great- 
est, that  God  should  depart  from  him  !  Were  their  per- 
severance in  holiness  dependent  on  the  saints  themselves, 
there  is  not  one  among  them  all  that  would  persevere. 
Moses  would  have  turned  away  in  disgust  from  the  bright 
visions  of  Pisgah,  but  for  this;  David  would  have  perse- 


FROM    FINAL    APOSTACY.  £65 

vered  in  adultery  and  blood,  but  for  this  ;  but  for  this,  Paul 
would  have  drawn  back  to  perdition,  though  within  sight 
of  his  crown  of  righteousness.  Hence,  Moses  so  earnestly 
prays,  "  If  thy  presence  go  not  with  us,  carry  me  not  up 
hence  !"  and  David  supplicates,  ''  Hold  thou  me  up, 
and  I  shall  be  safe ;"  and  Paul  expresses  the  assurance, 
"The  Lord  will  preserve  me  unto  his  heavenly  king- 
dom." The  Scriptures  are  full  of  this  truth.  "  The 
steps  of  a  good  man  are  ordered  by  the  Lord  :  though  he 
fall,  he  shall  not  utterly  be  cast  down,  for  the  Lord  up- 
holdeth  him  with  his  hand."  "  Now  unto  him  who  is 
able  to  keep  you  from  falling,  and  present  you  faultless 
before  the  presence  of  his  glory  with  exceeding  joy." 
What  but  the  fulfilled  promise,  "  My  grace  is  sufficient 
for  thee,  for  my  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness," 
spreading  itself  before  them,  like  the  cloud  by  day, 
and  shining  on  their  path  like  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night, 
could  ever  guide  the  people  of  God  to  the  heavenly 
land? 

The  truth  we  wish  to  illustrate,  may  be  made  still 
more  plain  and  unobjectionable,  if  in  addition  to  the 
power  and  divine  influence  by  which  believers  in  the 
Cross  are  preserved,  we  also  advert  to  the  means  by  which 
they  are  kept  from  falling  away.  There  are  appointed 
and  appropriate  means  of  their  perseverance,  as  well  as 
an  efficient  cause ;  nor  may  the  former  be  dispensed  with 
any  more  than  the  latter.  The  Scriptures  insist  on  this 
truth,  as  itself  a  component  part  of  the  doctrine  that 
there  is  no  falling  away  from  the  Cross.  This  is  that 
feature  of  the  doctrine  which  is  overlooked  by  that  class 
of  its  opposers,  who  affirm  that  it  is  a  doctrine  which 
tends  to  licentiousness,  and  one  which  even  the  best  of 
men  would  feel  strong  temptations  to  abuse.  "  He  that 
endureth  to  the  end,  the  same  shall  be  saved."  "  Be  thou 
12 


266       THE  CROSS  THE  PRESERVATION 

faithful  unto  death,  and  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life." 
"  To  him  that  overcometh  will  I  grant  to  sit  with  me  on 
my  throne."  "  He  that  overcometh,  and  keepeth  my  words, 
to  him  will  I  give  the  morning  star."  There  is  no  hope 
without  continued  holiness.  The  believer  may  not  sup- 
pose his  work  is  done,  because  he  has  found  pardon  and 
peace.  It  is  not  more  necessary  that  he  should  come  to 
the  Cross,  than  that  he  should  keep  at  the  Cross,  and 
live  and  die  by  the  faith  of  that  finished  redemption. 
There  is  no  divine  purpose  or  grace  to  keep  him  from  per- 
dition, if  he  does  not  persevere  in  faith  and  holiness.  His 
own  faith  and  holiness  are  themselves  the  very  things  to 
be  secured  in  order  to  his  salvation  ;  nor  can  there  be  any 
salvation  without  them.  It  is  a  disingenuous  and  per- 
verted view  of  the  truth,  to  say,  that  because  a  man  is 
once  in  Christ,  he  is  sure  to  be  saved,  though  he  goes 
away  from  Christ.  The  true  doctrine  is,  that  once  in 
Christ  always  in  Christ,  and  that  the  only  proof  and  way 
of  being  in  him  at  all  is  to  continue  in  him.  "  I  am  the 
way,"  says  the  Saviour.  Men  are  no  longer  in  the  way 
to  heaven  than  they  are  in  Christ,  and  pursuing  the 
straight  and  narrow  path  marked  by  his  footsteps  and 
his  atoning  blood.  The  Christian  is  engaged  in  a  per- 
petual conflict ;  and  no  sooner  does  he  put  off  his  armor, 
than  he  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  foe.  He  must  watch  and 
pray,  lest  he  be  led  into  temptation  ;  he  must  live  above 
the  world,  and  walk  with  God ;  he  must  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness,  and  grow  in  grace  and  the 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  As  he  advances 
in  years,  he  must  make  advances  in  piety,  till  his  "hoary 
head  is  a  crown  of  glory,  because  found  in  the  way  of 
righteousness ;"  nor  must  he  be  satisfied  until  the  last 
vestige  of  corruption  is  erased,  and  he  "beholds  the  face 
of  God  in  righteousness."   Men,  therefore,  must  continue 


FROM    FINAL    APOSTAGY.  267 

in  holiness,  or  die  in  their  iniquity.  God  has  solemnly 
declared,  "When  a  righteous  man  doth  turn  from  his  right- 
eousness, and  commit  iniquity,  he  shall  die."  He  may 
not  dismiss  his  solicitude,  because  he  is  once  righteous,  but 
must  hold  on  his  way.  If  he  is  lifted  up,  and  grows 
presumptuous,  becausa^  in  some  favored  hour,  he  has  en- 
joyed some  peculiar  tokens  of  the  divine  favor — if  he 
stops  where  he  is,  and  is  satisfied  with  his  present  attain- 
ments— he  will  draw  back  to  perdition.  He  will  not  gain 
the  prize  without  reaching  the  goal,  nor  wear  the  crown 
unless  he  achieves  the  victory.  He  may  never  be  satis- 
fied, without  pressing  forward.  "  I  count  not  myself  to 
have  apprehended,"  says  Paul ;  "  but  this  one  thing  I 
do  :  forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind,  and  reaching 
forth  to  those  that  are  before,  I  press  toward  the  mark  of 
the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus."  There  is  no  other  doctrine  of  not  falling  away 
than  that  all  true  believers  "  are  kept  by  the  power  of 
God,  through  faith,  unto  salvation."  A  continued  faith 
is  the  appointed  means  of  perseverance  ;  and  to  look  for 
the  end  without  the  means,  is  stumbling  over  palpable 
error,  walking  in  darkness,  and  ignorantly  and  rudely 
separating  what  God  has  joined  together.  The  design 
of  the  Cross  is  to  make  men  holy  as  God  is  holy.  God 
would  make  them  meet  for  his  presence,  and  by  the 
continued  and  progressive  influence  of  the  death  of  his 
Son.  The  most  confident  will  lose  their  confidence,  if 
they  work  not  out  "  their  own  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling,  because  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  them  to  will 
and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure." 

I  have  occupied  more  of  your  time  in  these  explanatory 
remarks  than  I  intended,  because  the  illustration  makes 
the  proof  of  our  position  more  intelligible  and  easy.  Our 
position  is,  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  finally  falling 


268  THE    CROSS    THE    PRESERVATION 

away  from  the  Cross.  Once  in  Christ,  always  in  Christ : 
once  justified,  always  justified.  The  final  perseverance 
of  every  true  believer  is  certain.  The  reasons  for  this 
position  I  will  state  with  as  much  brevity  and  simplicity 
as  I  can. 

We  find  one  of  the  fallen  children  of  Adam  at  the 
Cross ;  penitent,  humbled,  and  believing,  at  the  foot  of 
the  Cross.  He  came  there,  not  because  it  was  naturally 
in  his  heart  to  come,  for  he  was  once  a  totally  depraved 
being,  and  hated  nothing  so  much  as  the  holy  salvation 
procured  by  God's  crucified  Son.  Salvation  was  freely 
offered  to  him  through  the  Cross,  but  he  would  not  ac- 
cept it ;  nor  did  he  accept  it  until  God,  by  his  own 
almighty  power,  created  within  him  a  new  heart  and  a 
new  spirit,  and  transformed  his  character  from  death  in 
trespasses  and  sins  to  spiritual  life.  "He  is  God's  work- 
manship created  anew  in  Christ  Jesus,  after  the  image  of 
him  that  created  him."  Now,  is  there  any  reason  to 
believe  that  God  would  thus  have  made  bare  his  arm  to 
awaken,  convince  and  renew  this  once  depraved  creature, 
and  conduct  him  to  the  Cross  of  his  Son,  and  give  him 
joy  and  peace  in  believing,  only  to  suffer  him,  at  some 
future  period,  to  break  away  from  the  Cross  and  perish? 
Is  it  thus  that  the  God  of  heaven  honors  and  magnifies 
the  riches  of  his  grace  toward  guilty  men  1  Would  he 
do  all  this,  unmoved  and  uninduced  by  a  single  trait  of 
excellence  in  the  sinner,  and  from  mere  compassion 
toward  him  as  self-ruined  and  condemned,  and,  now  that 
he  has  imparted  to  him  a  portion  of  his  own  comeliness, 
leave  his  work  unfinished,  and  suffer  him  to  sink  unre- 
covered,  and  irrecoverably,  into  deeper  sin,  and  a  deeper 
damnation'?  Is  such  the  method  of  grace  revealed  in 
the  Gospel  1  Is  this  the  extent  of  God's  compassions  1 
Does  he  do  no  more  than  introduce  men,  in  all  the  weak- 


FROM    FINAL.    APOSTACY.  269 

ness  and  ignorance  of  their  spiritual  infancy,  into  his  own 
family,  and  then  leave  them  to  go  alone,  and  stumble 
and  fall,  and  perish  ?  Or  does  he,  now  that  he  has  led 
them  so  far,  pledge  himself  "  never  to  leave  nor  forsake 
them?"  to  keep  them  as  the  apple  of  his  eye,  to  nourish  and 
bring  them  up  as  children,  and  fit  them  for  his  heavenly 
kingdom?  Which  were  the  most  like  God?  I  read 
in  the  Scriptures  such  declarations  as  these  :  "  Whom 
he  loved,  he  loved  to  the  end."  ''The  gifts  and 
calling  of  God  are  without  repentance."  "The  Lord 
forsaketh  not  his  saints ;  they  are  preserved  forever." 
"  In  whom  also,  after  that  ye  believed^  ye  were  sealed 
with  that  Holy  Spirit  of  promise,  which  is  the  earnest  of 
your  inheritance  until  the  redemption  of  the  purchased 
possession."  "  Being  confident  of  this  very  thing,  that 
he  which  hath  begun  a  good  work  in  you,  will  perform  it 
until  the  day  of  Jesus  Christ."  And  what  do  they  teach 
us,  if  not  that  the  God  of  love  never  leaves  his  own  work 
unfinished,  and  that  what  he  begins  with  grace  he  ends 
in  glory  ?  It  would  be  a  new  view  of  God,  to  my  own 
mind,  that  he  ever  abandons  those  whom  he  has  once 
united  to  his  Son.  It  is,  I  am  persuaded,  a  view  unau- 
thorized by  the  Scriptures.  There  is  joy  in  heaven  over 
one  sinner  that  repenteth  ;  but  the  joy  would  be  prema- 
ture, if  he  had  entered  on  a  course  that  might,  after  all, 
terminate  in  the  chambers  of  death.  Strange  that  the 
dream  should  ever  have  been  told,  that  the  grace  of  God, 
so  wonderful  and  so  unchanging,  does  not  preserve  and 
secure  the  triumphs  it  has  once  achieved. 

Take  now  another  view  of  this  same  general  thought. 
This  regenerated  and  believing  sinner,  so  lately  brought 
to  the  Cross,  is  pardoned  and  justified.  By  faith  in  the 
Cross  of  Christ,  he  not  only  possesses  a  different  charac- 
ter from  that  he  once  possessed,  but  is  brought  into  new 


270  THE    CROSS    THE    PRESERVATION 

relations.     He  is  no  longer  under  the  law,  but  under 
grace.     He  is  in  a  state  of  grace — a  justified  state.   From 
the  moment  of  his  believing,  the  sentence  of  condemna- 
tion  which   he  had   incurred    by    his  transgressions  is 
removed  ;  he  is  judicially  absolved  from  punishment ;  his 
debt  to  divine  justice  is   paid;  and  a  righteousness  is 
imputed  to  him  which  answers  every  demand  of  the  law 
of  God.     He  is  reinstated  in  the  favor  of  his  once  offended 
Sovereign,  and  entitled  to  all  the  immunities  of  his  king- 
dom.    He  is  united  by  a  living  faith  to  the  Saviour,  and 
has  become  one  with  him,  as  the  branches  are  united  to 
the  vine,  and  the  members  of  the  body  to  its  head.     The 
precious  faith  by  which  he  is  thus  united  to  the  Living 
Vine  he  "  obtained  through  the  righteousness  of  God,  even 
our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."     Now,  how  does  the  notion 
of  falling  away  from  the  Cross  accord  with  this  justified 
state  of  every  believer?     Paul,  in  speaking  of  this  condi- 
tion of  all  true  believers,  uses  the  following  language : 
"  Therefore,  being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with 
God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  by  whom  also  we 
have  access  by  faith  unto  this  grace  wherein  we  stand,  and 
rejoice  in  the  hope  of  the  glory  of  God."     He  regards 
the  believer's  justification  as  a  permanent  reinstatement  in 
the  divine  favor ;  and  he  goes  on  to  reason  strongly  and 
conclusively  in  support  of  his  position.     His  argument  is 
this :  If  God  gave  his  Son  to  die  for  men,  while  they 
were  yet  enemies  to  him,  how  much  rather,  now  that  they 
are  become  his  friends,  shall  he  save  them  through  his 
death!     "  God  commendeth  his  love  toward  us,  in  that 
while  we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us.     Much 
more  then,  being  now  justified  by  his  blood,  we  shall  be 
''^  saved  from  wrath  through  him."     In  perfect  accord- 
ance with  this  are  all  the  representations  of  justification 
which  are  given  in  the  Bible.     God  never  forgives  one  of 


FROM    FINAL    APOSTACY.  £71 

the  sins  of  his  people,  without  forgiving  them  all.  When 
he  once  forgives  them,  there  is  no  more  condemnation. 
"  Their  sins  and  iniquities  will  I  remember  no  more.^^ 
Justification  is  represented  as  being  unto  life,  to  life  eter- 
nal. "  There  is  no  condemnation  to  them  which  are  in 
Christ  Jesus  ;  for  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death." 
Is  the  hypothesis  to  be  allowed,  that  those  who  bear  so 
near  a  relation  to  Jesus  Christ  as  to  be  the  members  of 
his  own  body,  will  ever  perish  1  or  is  it  more  in  accord- 
ance with  what  we  know  of  him  to  believe  the  encour- 
aging assurance,  "  Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also !" 
The  faith  which  was  at  first  through  his  righteousness, 
will,  through  his  righteousness,  be  perpetuated  to  the 
last ;  and  the  union  which  it  once  forms  with  him  will 
never  be  dissolved.  Such  is  the  obvious  teaching  of  the 
Scriptures.  ^' He  that  believeth  shall  he  saved.^^  If,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  none  will  be  saved  without  perse- 
vering in  holiness,  and  if  all  who  believe  shall  be  saved, 
then  all  who  believe  shall  persevere  in  hoHness.  God 
has  given  this  promise  the  solemn  and  emphatic  form  of 
a  covenant — a  covenant  "ordered  in  all  things  and  sure," 
and  pledging  to  his  people  "  the  sure  mercies  of  David." 
Read  his  own  interesting  description  of  that  covenant : 
"  Behold  the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord,  that  I  will  make 
a  new  covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel  and  tlie  house  of 
Judah,  not  according  to  the  covenant  I  made  with  their 
fathers  ;  but  this  shall  be  the  covenant  that  I  will  make 
with  the  house  of  Israel :  After  those,  saith  the  Lord,  I 
will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in 
their  hearts,  and  \will  he  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my 
people.  And  I  will  make  an  everlasting  covenant  with 
them,  and  I  will  not  turn  away  from  them  to  do  them 
good,  but  I  will  put  my  fear  in  their  hearts,  and  they 


272       THE  CROSS  THE  PRESERVATION 

SHALL  NOT  tiirn  away  from  me."  In  writing  to  the  He- 
brews, Paul  speaks  of  this  covenant  not  only  as  a  new 
covenant,  but  a  "  better  covenant,"  and  established  upon 
''  better  promises,"  than  the  covenant  of  Sinai.  The 
covenant  at  Sinai  was  a  pledge  of  the  divine  favor 
so  long  as  the  Israelites  persevered  in  their  obedience^  but 
did  not  promise  persevering  obedience  itself;  but  this  new 
covenant  contains  this  "  better  promise,"  and  this  prom- 
ise constitutes  its  great  pre'e'minence.  A  justified  state 
is  one  of  the  promises  of  this  covenant — a  promise  made 
to  faith  as  the  revealed  condition  of  its  blessings.  The 
great  and  primary  condition  of  that  covenant  was  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  Cross;  and  it  has  been  fulfilled,  and  "  by 
one  offering  he  hath  perfected  forever  them  that  are  sanc- 
tified." But  there  is  a  subordinate  condition  fulfilled  by 
believers  themselves  in  those  transactions  intow^hichfaith 
enters  with  their  great  Surety,  and  this  also  has  been  ful- 
filled. Nothing  can  be  more  to  our  purpose  than  the 
declarations  of  the  apostle,  urging  the  encouragements  of 
this  gracious  covenant,  when  he  says,  "  The  just  by  faith 
shall  live;  but  if  any  man  draw  back,  my  soul  hath  no 
pleasure  in  him.  But  we  are  not  of  them  who  draw  back 
unto  perdition,  but  of  them  that  believe  to  the  saving  of 
the  soul.'^  If  there  be  such  a  final  falling  aw^ay  from  this 
state  of  justification,  what  is  the  import  of  such  decla- 
rations as  the  following? — "  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son 
hath  everlasting  life,  and  shall  not  come  into  condemna- 
tion, but  is  passed  from  death  unto  life."  "  This  is  the 
will  of  him  that  sent  me,  that  every  one  that  seeth  the 
Son,  and  believeth  on  him,  may  have  everlasting  life,  and 
I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day.^^  "  Whom  he  called, 
them  he  also  justified,  and  whom  he  justified,  them  he 
also  glorified.''^  "  Faithful  is  he  that  calleth  you,  who 
also  will  do  it."     "  For  the  mountains  shall  depart,  and 


FKOM    FINAL    APOSTACY.  273 

the  hills  shall  be  removed,  but  my  kindness  shall  not 
depart  from  thee,  nor  shall  the  covenant  of  my  peace  be 
removed,  saith  the  Lord  God,  that  hath  mercy  on  thee." 
But  there  is  a  view  of  the  believer's  permanent  hold 
of  the  Cross,  which  relates  to  the  great  Sufferer  himself^ 
and  which  furnishes  evidence  certainly  not  less  satis- 
factory of  the  truth  we  are  considering.  The  Saviour  him- 
self has  a  chartered  rig-ht  to  the  final  perseverance  in 
holiness,  and  the  ultimate  salvation  of  every  sinner  who 
once  truly  believes  in  him.  It  is  a  right  guaranteed  to 
him  in  the  ages  of  eternity,  and  purchased  and  sealed  by 
his  atoning  blood.  "  When  thou  shalt  make  his  soul  an 
offering  for  sin,  he  shall  see  his  seed ;  he  shall  see  of  the 
travail  of  his  soul,  and  be  satisfied."  Paul  speaks  of 
those  who  have  "  the  hope  of  eternal  life,  which  God, 
that  cannot  lie,  promised  before  the  world  began.'^  To 
whom  was  the  promise  of  eternal  life  made,  before  the 
world  began  ?  Not  certainly  to  men,  because  they  were 
not  in  existence ;  but  to  Jesus  Christ,  for  all  who  should 
thereafter  believe  on  him,  and  who  were  thus  early 
given  to  him  as  the  reward  of  his  sufferings  and  death. 
He  did  not  lay  down  his  life  for  nothing,  nor  for  a  re- 
ward that  was  indefinite.  It  was  "  to  the  intent  that 
now,  unto  principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly  places, 
might  be  known  through  the  church,^'  which  he  re- 
deemed, "  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God,"  and  his  tri- 
umphant victory  over  the  Prince  of  darkness.  Had  the 
success  of  his  great  work  been  dependent  on  the  ungov- 
erned  will  of  man,  none  would  have  accepted  his  sal- 
vation ;  or  had  it  been  dependent  on  their  own  fickle  and 
faithless  minds,  when  once  accepted,  there  would  have 
been  no  security  that  those  who  once  came  to  him  would 
not  finally  be  cast  out.  And  did  he  descend  from 
heaven,  and  pour  out  his  soul  unto  death,  on  any  such 
12* 


274       THE  CROSS  THE  PRESERVATION 

uncertain  and  dubious  enterprise  1  or  had  he  the  promise, 
before  he  left  the  bosom  of  his  Father,  of  the  conviction, 
the  conversion,  the  faith,  and  the  final  perseverance  and 
salvation  of  a  "  great  multitude  which  no  man  can  num- 
ber," not  one  of  whom  should  furnish  occasion,  by  ulti- 
mate apostacy,  for  the  fiend-like  exultation  that  the  great 
Conqueror  is  spoiled  of  his  reward  ?  Nor  was  this  great 
promise  ever  lost  sight  of  by  the  Son  of  Man,  but  often 
adverted  to  while  he  was  on  the  earth.  "  All  that  the 
Father  giveth  me,"  says  he,  "  shall  come  to  me,  and 
him  that  cometh  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out.''''  "  Thou 
hast  given  him  power  over  all  flesh,  that  he  should  give 
eternal  life  to  as  many  as  thou  hast  given  him.^''  "  I  give 
unto  them  eternal  life,  and  they  shall  never  perish, 
neither  sball  any  pluck  them  out  of  my  hand.  My  Fa- 
ther which  gave  them  me  is  greater  than  all,  and  none 
is  able  to  pluck  them  out  of  my  Father's  hand."  "  Fa- 
ther, I  will  that  those  whom  thou  hast  given  me  be  w^ith 
me  where  I  am,  that  they  may  behold  my  glory  which 
thou  hast  given  me  !"  Here  lies  the  security  against 
their  falling  away.  The  suffering  Saviour  has  a  claim 
upon  them  which  is  respected  in  heaven,  and  which  he 
is  able  to  enforce.  We  say  of  the  Cross,  what  a  remark- 
able man  once  said  of  one  of  its  kindred  doctrines  :  "I 
understand,  sir,"  said  a  friend,  to  the  late  Sir  Rowland 
Hill,  "  that  you  hold  that  terrible  doctrine  of  election.'^ 
"  It  is  a  mistake,"  replied  Sir  Rowland  ;  "  I  do  not  hold 
election^  election  holds  me."  Believers  hold  the  Cross^ 
because  the  Cross  holds  them.  I  do  not  see  that  the 
Saviour  has  any  security  for  the  salvation  of  those  thus 
given  to  him,  if  the  doctrine  of  falling  away  be  admitted. 
If  one  may  fall  away,  all  may  fall  away.  The  charter 
may  be  violated,  and  he  may  lose  his  reward,  unless  the 
grace  of  his  Cross  hold  them  fast  and  forever.    There  are 


FROM    FINAL    APOSTACY.  375 

obliquities  in  their  course,  but  his  faithfulness  is  piedg-ed 
to  rectify  them  ;  there  are  sins  to  which  they  are  exposed 
and  will  commit,  but  that  same  faithfulness  will  purge 
them  away.  "  I  have  made  a  covenant  with,  my  chosen," 
saith  the  Holy  One  of  Israel ;  "I  have  laid  help  upon 
one  that  is  mighty  ;  I  have  exalted  one  chosen  out  of  the 
people.  His  seed  also  will  I  make  to  endure  forever.  If 
his  children  forsake  my  law,  and  walk  not  in  my  judg- 
ments, if  they  break  my  statutes,  and  keep  not  my  com- 
mandments, then  will  I  visit  their  transgression  with 
the  rod,  and  their  iniquity  with  stripes  ;  nevertheless,  my 
loving  kindness  will  I  not  take  from  Jiim,  nor  suffer  my 
faithfulness  to  fail." 

The  Father's  engagement  with  the  Son  was  a  bona 
fide  engagement ;  and  so  long  as  God  is  on  the  throne, 
and  is  able  to  control  their  hearts  and  govern  their  con- 
dition and  destiny,  their  unfaithfulness  shall  never  be 
allowed  to  "  make  the  faith  of  God  of  none  effect." 
Dangers  may  stand  thick  around  all  the  paths  they  are 
traveling,  and  they  may  often  tremble  lest  they  fall  by 
the  hand  of  the  enemy  :  but  from  that  altar  of  interces- 
sion, he  who  bled  on  Calvary  looks  down  and  says  to 
them,  "Fear  not,  little  flock;  it  is  my  Father's  good 
pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom  !"  Nor  could  there  be 
any  such  thing  as  ihe  full  assurance  of  hope,  in  this  cove- 
nant and  promises,  if  believers  ultimately  fall.  No  pre- 
sent evidence  of  a  change  of  heart,  be  it  ever  so  convinc- 
ing ;  no  consciousness  of  love  to  God  and  faith  in  his 
Son,  be  it  ever  so  strong  and  infallible ;  no  indications  of 
a  pardoned  and  justified  state,  be  they  ever  so  conclusive ; 
could  warrant  that  full  assurance  of  hope  possessed  by 
the  saints  of  the  Old  Tesrament  and  the  New,  expressed 
by  Abraham,  sung  forth  so  often  and  so  devoutly  by 
David,  and  gloried  in  by  Paul,  had  there  been  any  un- 


276        THE  CROSS  THE  PRESERVATION 

certainty  as  to  their  holding  out  to  the  end.  No  living 
man  can  know  that  he  will  not  at  last  lie  down  in  hell, 
if  he  once  admits  the  hypothesis  that  he  may  fall  away. 
The  assurance  and  certainty  of  salvation,  so  often  enjoyed, 
and  so  uniformly  required  in  the  Scriptures,  were  a  state  of 
mind  absolutely  impossible,  were  not  the  attraction  of 
the  Cross  powerful  enough  to  keep  all  whom  it  once 
attracts. 

Let  this  great  doctrine  of  the  Cross,  then,  be,  as  it  was 
designed  to  be  by  its  Author,  for  the  comfort  and  edifica- 
tion of  all  who  truly  fear  God  and  love  his  Son.  Here, 
Christian,  is  the  pledge  of  your  security.  "  Cursed  is  the 
man  who  trusteth  in  man,  and  whose  heart  departeth  from 
the  Lord  his  God  !"  Go  on  your  way,  and  rejoice  as 
you  go.  The  Cross  of  your  Redeemer  is  not  so  powerless 
as  to  be  unable  to  keep  you  from  falling,  and  present  you 
faultless  before  the  presence  of  his  glory,  with  exceeding 
joy.  The  feeblest  lamb  is  safe,  once  housed  within  the 
fold  of  the  great  Shepherd.  There  is  no  uncertainty  as 
to  the  issue  of  this  spiritual  conflict,  though  it  be  sharp  and 
long.  Despondency  is  not  one  of  the  elements  of  ad- 
vancement. Christ  received  is  heaven  begun.  He  who 
is  the  Author  is  also  the  Finisher  of  your  faith.  Away 
with  your  discouragements,  and  look  to  Jesus.  Away 
with  your  weakness,  and  look  to  Jesus.  Away  with  your 
darkness,  and  look  to  Jesus  as  the  light  of  life.  Look  back 
to  him  on  the  Cross ;  look  up  to  him  on  the  throne ;  look  for- 
ward to  him  at  his  second  coming.  Your  Saviour,  your 
counselor,  your  righteousness,  your  strength,  the  captain  of 
your  salvation,  your  portion  hung  on  that  Cross,  is  now 
on  that  throne,  and  will  soon  come  to  judge  the  world 
in  righteousness.  If  you  have  Christ,  you  have  all. 
Heaven  itself  is  not  so  great  a  gift  as  God's  own  Son. 
"  What  shall  we  say  to  these  things  1     If  God  be  for  us, 


FROM    FINAL    APOSTACY.  277 

who  can  be  against  us  ?  He  that  spared  not  his  own 
Son,  but  g-ave  him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  he  not,  icith 
him,  freely  give  us  all  things?" 

Nor  is  it  less  in  keeping  with  the  whole  design  and 
spirit  of  the  truth  here  presented,  that  we  say  to  you, 
that  there  is  no  well-grounded  hope  in  Christ,  without  per- 
severance in  holiness.  I  entreat  you  to  give  this  thought 
that  place  in  your  hearts  which  it  deserves.  Past  efforts, 
past  hopes,  past  experience,  will  be  of  little  avail,  if  you 
now  become  weary,  or  ever  cease  to  remember  that  "  he 
that  endureth  to  the  end,  the  same  shall  be  saved."  In 
retirement  and  in  the  world,  therefore,  in  prosperity  and 
in  adversity,  on  the  mount  and  in  the  vale,  "  watch  and 
pray,  that  ye  enter  not  into  temptation."  You  will  have 
"  manifold  temptations,"  and  trials  of  your  faith ;  "  there- 
fore fear,  lest,  a  promise  being  left  you  of  entering  into 
that  rest,  any  of  you  should  seem  to  come  short  of  it." 

Nor  may  I  conclude  this  chapter,  without  a  word  of 
affectionate  admonition  to  those  who  are  still  out  of  Christ. 
My  beloved  friends,  if  all  true  believers  must  and  will 
endure  to  the  end,  in  order  to  be  saved,  what  will  be- 
come of  you?  If  "  the  righteous,"  though  saved,  saved 
infallibly  and  forever,  are  saved  with  so  much  effort, 
"  where  shall  the  ungodly  and  the  sinner  appear  7"  You 
have  come  in  sight  of  the  Cross,  and  have  turned  from 
it.  You  have  to  begin  and  persevere  to  the  last,  and  you 
have  not  yet  entered  upon  the  path  that  leads  to  life. 
You  have  to  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith,  and  you  are 
not  only  without  your  armor,  but  asleep  on  the  field. 
And  can  you  hope  to  reach  the  goal,  to  gain  the  victory, 
and  wear  the  crown  ?  When  so  much  is  to  be  done,  can 
you  be  safe  in  doing  nothing?  Oh,  when  will  you 
receive  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord  and  enter  upon  that  course 
in  which  you  have  something  more  than  human  assur- 


278     THE  CROSS  THE  PRESERVATION,  &c. 

ance,  that  you  shall  hold  on  to  the  end  1  Once  in  Christ, 
always  in  Christ — what  a  motive  is  this  to  seek  an  interest 
in  him !  JVb  falling  amay  from  the  Cross — what  a 
motive  is  this  to  flee  to  the  stronghold,  as  prisoners  of 
hope  ! 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

FULL  ASSURANCE  OF  HOPE  AT  THE  CROSS. 

Nothing  is  more  natural,  or  more  reasonable,  than  that 
the  strength  and  ardor  of  hope  should  be  regulated  by 
the  importance  and  magnitude  of  the  objects  on  which  it 
terminates.  It  is  when  the  objects  of  their  pursuit  are 
vast  and  important,  that  the  hopes  of  men  become  the 
stimulus  to  their  greatest  efforts.  No  man  acts  with  a 
view  to  he  past ;  and  if  a  wise  man,  he  even  quits  the 
stronghold  of  the  present,  and  carries  his  designs  into 
the  future.  He  acts  for  the  next  hour,  the  next  day,  the 
next  year;  and  if  truly  wise,  he  acts  for  eternity.  This 
is  one  of  the  points  of  difference  between  the  Christian 
and  all  other  men,  that  he  acts  under  the  influence  of 
the  highest  and  the  strongest  hoins.  He  is  the  creature 
of  preseritiment — the  purest  and  the  noblest  presentiment. 
Sometimes,  like  the  Father  of  the  faithful,  "  he  hopes 
against  hope,"  and  where  everything  seems  to  be  against 
him.  If  he  has  no  hope  in  creatures,  he  has  hope  in 
God,  and  "  out  of  weakness  is  made  strong."  The 
Cross  is  the  emblem  of  hope ;  hope  constitutes  one  of  its 
powerful  attractions.  At  the  Cross,  the  field  of  hope  is 
amplified ;  it  is  ever  opening  wider  and  wider.  There  is 
no  grief  to  which  it  does  not  furnish  mitigation,  no  evil 
for  which  it  does  not  yield  an  antidote,  nor  any  good 
which  it  does  not  promise.     It  is  not  so  much  over  ter- 


280  FULL    ASSURANCE    AT    THE    CROSS. 

restrial  things  that  this  hope  diffuses  its  radiance,  as  over 
scenes  that  are  opening  upon  it  from  another  world, 
where  the  last  lights  of  time  fade  away  in  the  brighter 
lights  of  eternity,  and  the  last  sounds  of  earth  scarcely 
die  on  the  ear  before  it  is  greeted  with  the  songs  of 
heaven. 

There  is  nothing  in  Christianity  that  forbids  the  hope 
of  the  Christian  rising  to  full  assurance.  Two  prelimi- 
nary questions  settled,  and  every  man  is  warranted  in 
cherishing  an  assured  hope  of  eternal  life.  The  first  is, 
is  he  sure  that  Jesus  Christ  is  a  divine  and  all-sufiicient 
Saviour  ?  the  second  is,  is  he  sure  that  he  believes  in 
him  1  Doubt  in  regard  to  either  of  these  points  of  inquiry 
disturbs  his  serenity,  and  necessarily  produces  hesitation 
and  embarrassment.  Where  there  is  no  doubt  in  rela- 
tion to  these,  his  hopes  assume  the  form  of  confidence  and 
certainty.  They  are  not  the  illusions  of  the  imagination, 
nor  the  offspring  of  credulity;  but  the  "  fruit  of  the  spirit," 
grown  to  maturity,  and  nurtured  and  invigorated  by  all 
the  promises  of  God. 

A  mind  that  is  satisfied  of  the  truth  of  the  Cross,  seeks 
no  higher  evidence  of  the  Saviour's  all-sufficiency,  and 
asks  no  other,  no  surer  way  of  salvation.  The  foun- 
dation is  strong  enough  to  support  any  hope  that  is  built 
upon  it ;  nor  is  there  any  room  for  apprehension,  or  place 
for  doubt,  where  men  build  upon  this  corner-stone  laid  in 
Zion.  The  doubt  and  fear  of  good  men  arise  not  from 
any  secret  suspicion  that  the  system  of  redemption  through 
the  Cross  is  not  worthy  of  their  entire  confidence,  but 
rather  from  the  fear  that  they  do  not  believe  in  it,  and 
from  some  lurking  apprehension  that  they  are  deceived 
as  to  their  own  personal  character.  While  it  is  true  that 
hypocrites  and  other  unregenerate  men  may  deceive  them- 
selves with  false  hopes,  such  as  truly  believe  in  the  Lord 


I 


FULL  ASSURANCE  AT  THE  CROSS.      281 

Jesus,  and  endeavor  to  walk  in  all  good  conscience  before 
him,  may  be  assured  that  they  are  in  a  state  of  grace,  and 
may  rejoice  in  the  hope  of  the  glory  of  God.  There  is 
no  impossibility  in  a  believer  being  conscious  of  his  faith, 
nor  do  we  perceive  that  there  is  any  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  this  consciousness,  more  than  frequently  exists  to  the 
consciousness  of  a  multitude  of  his  internal  emotions. 
Faith  in  Christ  so  widely  differs  from  unbelief,  that  the 
true  believer  may  know  when  he  exercises  it.  It  is  not 
a  bare  conjectural  and  probable  persuasion,  but  an  as- 
sured reality.  So  long  as  it  is  founded  upon  the  divine 
promises,  and  accompanied  by  the  evidence  of  those 
graces  to  which  these  promises  are  made,  there  is  sinful 
mistrust  in  not  indulging  "  the  hope  that  maketii  not 
ashamed." 

We  learn  from  the  Scriptures,  that  God  often  gives  to 
his  people  this  full  assurance.  "  Now  the  God  of  hope," 
says  the  apostle,  "  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in 
believing,  that  ye  may  abound  in  hope  through  the  power 
of  the  Holy  Ghost. ^'  This  apostle  did  not  deem  it  an 
imusual  attainment,  when  he  said  to  the  Thessalonians, 
*'  Now  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  himself,  and  God  even  our 
Father,  which  hath  loved  us,  and  given  us  everlasting 
consolation  and  good  hope,  through  grace,  comfort  your 
hearts  and  establish  you  in  every  good  word  and  work  !" 
In  writing  to  the  Ephesians,  he  says,  "  In  whom  also, 
after  that  ye  believed,  ye  were  sealed  with  that  Holy 
Spirit  of  promise,  which  is  the  earnest  of  our  inheritance, 
until  the  redemption  of  the  purchased  possession."  In 
writing  to  the  Corinthians,  he  expresses  the  same  thought : 
*'  Now  He  which  establisheth  us  with  you  in  Christ,  and 
hath  anointed  us,  is  God,  who  hath  also  sealed  us,  and 
given  the  earnest  of  the  Spirit  in  our  hearts."  What 
higher  evidence  of  belonging  to  the  divine  family,  than 


282      FULL  ASSURANCE  AT  THE  CROSS. 

to  be  thus  sealed  by  the  spirit  of  adoption ;  and  what 
surer  guaranty  of  the  purchased  possession,  than  thus  to 
be  made  partakers  of  the  earnest  of  that  inheritance !  It 
cannot  have  escaped  the  observation  of  careful  readers  of 
the  New  Testament,  that  one  important  point  of  differ- 
ence between  Christians  in  the  apostolic  age,  and  those 
of  the  age  in  which  we  live,  is  found  in  the  assurance  of 
their  hopes,  and  the  obscurity  and  doubt  so  often  attend- 
ing our  own.  Theirs  was  an  age  of  trial,  and  God  mul- 
tiplied to  them  the  consolations  of  his  grace.  The  strong 
lines  of  the  Christian  character  were  more  fully  and  per- 
fectly developed  in  their  experience  and  conduct  than  in 
ours.  Theirs  was  the  pattern  church,  and  designed  to  be 
a  guide  to  every  subsequent  age.  Erom  them  we  may 
therefore  learn  our  own  duty  in  this  article  of  Christian 
experience.  In  what  terms  of  unhesitating,  glowing 
confidence,  do  we  hear  them  giving  utterance  to  the, 
assurance  of  hope  !  "  Though  our  outward  man  perish," 
yet  is  "our  inward  inan  renewed  day  by  day."  "For 
our  light  affliction,  which  is  but  for  a  moment,  worketh 
out  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of 
glory."  "  Who,  according  to  his  abundant  mercy,  hath 
begotten  us  again  unto  a  lively  hope,  to  an  inheritance 
incorruptible,  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away." 
"  Which  hope  we  have  as  an  anchor  to  the  soul,  sure 
and  steadfast. ^'^  "  I  am  persuaded  that  nothing  can  sepa- 
rate us  from  the  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord."  "  We  know  that  if  our  earthly  house  of  this 
tabernacle  were  dissolved,  we  have  a  building  of  God,  an 
house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens." 
"  Therefore  we  are  always  confident,  knowing  that  while 
we  are  at  home  iu  the  body,  we  are  absent  from  the 
Lord."  "  Whom,  having  not  seen,  ye  love ;  in  whom, 
though  now  ye  see  him  not,  yet  believing,  ye  rejoice 


FULL    ASSURANCE    AT    THE    CROSS.  283 

with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory."  These  ai'e 
delightful  expressions  of  the  full  assurance  of  hope. 
They  describe  the  calm  and  tranquil  state  of  the  mind, 
safely  anchored  in  the  storm,  as  well  as  its  placid  and 
triumphant  progress  over  the  waters,  under  serener  skies, 
with  every  sail  spread  to  the  wind,  and  the  destined  and 
long-desired  haven  full  and  constantly  in  view. 

Nor  have  there  been  wanting  instances,  not  a  few,  of 
the  same  triumphant  hope  in  every  age.  Though  this 
infallible  assurance  does  not  so  belong  to  the  essence  of 
piety,  but  that  many  a  pious  man  may  wait  long,  and 
pass  through  many  conflicts  before  he  attain  to  it,  yet  it 
is  of  frequent  attainment.  The  life  and  death  of  many 
a  child  of  God,  among  the  taught,  as  well  as  among  those 
who  are  teachers  in  spiritual  things,  among  the  afflicted 
and  poor  as  well  as  among  those  who  are  the  more 
favored  objects  of  the  divine  bounty,  attest  this  same 
blessed  experience.  When  I  see  those  in  whose  bosoms 
the  love  of  God  appears  to  have  predominant  sway  ;  in 
whose  spirit  the  various  graces  of  the  Christian  character 
are  so  blended  as  to  exhibit  the  beauties  of  holiness  ;  in 
whose  conduct  there  is  found  an  habitual  conformity  to 
the  laws  of  rectitude ;  who  are  acquiescent  in  adversity, 
and  humble  in  prosperity ;  who  are  as  persevering  as  they 
are  happy,  and  as  laborious  and  self-denying  as  they  are 
comforted ;  who  are  as  distrustful  of  themselves  as  they 
are  confident  in  the  faithfulness  of  their  Divine  Lord  ;  and 
who  are  habitually  more  anxious  to  do  their  duty  in  this 
world,  than  they  are  perplexed  about  their  condition  in 
the  world  to  come ;  though  I  know  that  their  characters 
still  bear  the  marks  of  sinful  imperfection,  I  honor  their 
testimony  when  they  affirm  that  their  prospects  are  habit- 
ually unobscured  by  doubts  respecting  their  own  salva- 
tion.   Many  such  Christians  I  have  known — more  I  have 


284      FULL  ASSURANCE  AT  THE  CROSS. 

read  of — and  multitudes  of  such  I  believe  are  to  be  found 
in  the  Church  of  God. 

Since,  then,  the  Christian  hope  often  rises  to  full  as- 
surance, it  is  an  inquiry  of  some  interest,  Whether  all 
Christians  may  and  ought  not  to  possess  this  strong  and 
undouhting  confidence?  I  have  before  remarked  that  this 
assurance  belongs  not  to  the  essence  of  true  piety,  and 
that  good  men  there  are,  who  not  always,  and  it  may  be, 
never  enjoy  it.  It  were  as  untrue  as  it  were  cruel,  to 
affirm  that  there  is  no  genuine  piety,  where  this  assurance 
is  wanting.  Spiritual  darkness  and  embarrassment  are 
not  necessary  proof  of  an  entire  destitution  of  evangelical 
faith.  We  should  be  slow  to  affirm,  or  to  admit,  that 
every  season  of  spiritual  depression  is  proof  of  a  state  of 
mind  at  enmity  with  God.  But  while  this  is  true,  every 
man  acquainted  with  the  scope  and  design  of  the  Gospel, 
must  see  that  there  is  no  necessity  for  any  good  man  in 
the  world  remaining  in  such  a  state  of  mind.  It  cannot 
be,  that  the  system  of  truth  and  grace,  which  proclaims 
"  glad  tidings  of  great  joy,"  was  designed  to  encourage 
such  a  doubting  hope  and  comfortless  experience.  The 
Scriptures  do  not  describe  true  religion  with  such  indefi- 
nite ness,  that  it  cannot  be  distinctly  seen  and  understood  ; 
nor  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  heart  so  con- 
fused and  obscure,  as  not  to  be  discerned.  Heavenly 
affections  are  not  earthly  ;  nor  is  the  supreme  love  of  God 
the  love  of  self  and  the  world.  There  can  be  no  insu- 
perable difficulty  in  the  way  of  distinguishing  between 
them.  The  leading  characteristics  of  these  two  classes 
of  affections  are  strong  and  prominent,  and  need  never 
be  misconceived  or  misinterpreted .  They  are  infallible  ; 
and  when  honestly  applied,  are  clearly  seen  to  determine 
the  question  whether  men  are,  or  are  not,  the  disciples  of 
Jesus  Christ.     The  differences  between  the  views  and 


FULL    ASSURANCE    AT    THE    CROSS.  285 

affections  of  good  and  bad  men  toward  the  method  of 
redemption  by  the  Cross  of  Christ,  are  not  of  that  neu- 
tral character  that  it  is  impossible  to  determine  what 
they  are.  They  can  certainly  ascertain  whether  they 
fall  in  with  this  redemption,  or  fall  out  with  it ;  and 
whether  the  atoning,  interceding  Saviour  is  "  precious  " 
to  them,  or  as  "a  root  out  of  dry  ground,"  in  which 
they  discover  no  form  or  comeliness.  The  Scriptures 
teach  us  that  every  humble  man — every  man  who  de- 
lights in  God's  law,  and  takes  enjoyment  in  the  secret, 
social  and  public  duties  of  piety — every  man  who  finds 
his  pleasure  in  his  duty — every  man  who  loves  God  and 
his  people — and  every  man  whose  life  and  conversation 
are  controlled  by  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel,  is  the  sub- 
ject of  regenerating  grace.  It  cannot  be  impossible  to 
decide  whether  we  possess  such  a  character  as  this.  The 
condition  of  the  people  of  God  in  the  present  world  is 
singularly  adapted  to  develop  and  bring  out  this  char- 
acter, and  to  exhibit  the  evidence  of  it,  both  to  themselves 
and  others.  They  are  the  subjects  of  a  discipline,  one 
great  object  of  which  is  to  "  show  them  what  is  in  their 
hearts."  New  scenes,  new  associations,  new  duties,  new 
mercies,  new  trials,  new  temptations,  are  perpetually 
arising  which  bring  their  religion  to  the  test. 

The  best  of  all  schools  for  the  trial  of  the  Christian 
character  is  the  school  of  experience,  God  teaches  men 
by  his  providence  in  a  way  that  is  very  apt  to  undeceive 
them,  if  they  are  deceived,  and  to  confirm  and  establish 
them,  if  they  are  not  deceived.  He  leads  them,  as  he 
did  the  children  of  Israel,  through  the  wilderness,  "  to 
prove  them,  and  humble  them,  and  see  whether  they 
keep  his  commandments  or  no."  They  are  put  to  the 
trial  of  time  and  circumstance — of  men  and  things — of 
snares  and  enemies — of  truth  and  duty.     It  is  under  such 


286  FULL    ASSURANCE    AT    THE    CROSS. 

a  discipline,  that  not  a  few  who  had  strong  hopes  have 
been  brought  to  see  them  crushed,  and  for  the  time  anni- 
hilated ;  while  in  the  issue,  such  have  been  the  abound- 
ing faithfulnesss  and  mercy  of  God  toward  them,  that, 
although  the  developments  of  their  character  have  filled 
them  with  unwonted  self-diffidence  and  trembling,  they 
have  renewed  and  stronger  confidence  in  God  than  ever. 
Cautious  Christians  have  learned  to  be  slow  in  deciding 
upon  their  character  by  any  one  criterion,  or  by  any  sud- 
den impulse  of  feeling,  or  by  anything  short  of  such  a 
trial  of  it  as  shows  them  "  what  manner  of  spirit  they 
are  of."  There  is  an  exception  to  this  remark  in  the  case 
of  young  converts ;  and  their  experience  and  joy  present 
a  most  delightful  view  of  the  love  and  tenderness  of  the 
great  Shepherd  toward  the  lambs  of  his  flock.  "  The 
bruised  reed  he  does  not  break,  and  the  smoking  flax  he 
does  not  quench."  His  tenderness  and  love  are  specially 
discernible,  in  this  respect,  to  those  youthful  Christians 
whom  subsequent  events  have  shown  were  destined  to 
an  early  grave.  Such  youthful  converts  rarely  have 
their  confidence  disturbed.  They  are  more  usually  saved 
from  those  fearful  conflicts  which  bring  to  the  test  the 
liopes  of  more  experienced  piety.  Because  their  course 
is  rapid  and  short,  it  is  bright  and  clear,  and  the  light 
of  heaven  shines  upon  it  all  the  way.  Some  Christians 
honor  God  by  their  death— others  by  their  life ;  and  if 
young  converts  sometimes  die  in  greater  peace  and 
triumph  than  many  old  believers,  it  is  because  older 
believers  glorify  him  more  by  the  life  of  the  righteous, 
while  the  only  way  in  which  those  whose  race  is  short 
can  glorify  him  is  by  their  triumphant  death.  At  the 
same  time,  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten,  that  what  older 
Christians  sometimes  lose  in  this  vividness  of  joy,  they 
gain  by  weathering  the  storm.    They  rarely  pass  through 


FULL    ASSURANCE    AT    THE    CROSS.  237 

the  varied  scenes  of  a  long  life,  without  sometimes  pass- 
ing under  the  cloud.  Tried  piety  is  sterling  piety, 
though  not  always,  and  indeed  not  often,  unclouded. 
But  what  the  Christian  is,  is  no  criterion  of  what  he 
should  be.  This  discipline  itself  is  one  of  the  means  by 
which  a  more  uniform  assurance  is  rendered  a  practicable 
and  reasonable  attainment. 

Nor  may  it  be  forgotten  that  it  is  a  duty  expressly 
required  in  the  Scriptures.  Paul  says  to  the  Hebrews, 
"  We  desire  that  every  one  of  you  do  shew  the  same  dili- 
gence to  the  full  assurance  of  hope  to  the  end."  To  the 
Corinthians  he  says,  "  Examine  yourselves  whether  ye 
be  in  the  faith;  prove  your  own  selves:  know  ye  not 
your  own  selves,  how  that  Jesus  Christ  is  in  you  except  ye 
he  reprobates  V  To  the  Galatians  he  writes,  "  Let  every 
man  prove  his  own  work,  and  then  shall  he  have  con- 
fidence in  himself  alone,  and  not  in  another."  The 
confidence  of  our  fellow-men  that  we  are  Christians  is 
not  always  proof  of  our  Christianity.  Our  confidence 
should  arise  from  the  evidence  which  we  ourselves  per- 
ceive, and  not  merely  from  the  good  opinion  which  others 
form  concerning  us.  To  the  "  saints  that  are  scattered 
abroad,"  Peter  writes,  "  Wherefore,  the  rather,  brethren, 
give  diligence  to  make  your  calling  and  election  5izre." 
It  is  a  very  plain  truth,  therefore,  that  no  Christian  ought 
to  rest  satisfied  with  a  doubtful  hope.  Whether  he  is 
dead  in  sin,  or  begins  to  live ;  whether  Christ  is  his  life, 
or  whether  he  glories  in  another ;  whether  he  is  the 
friend  of  God,  or  his  enemy ;  whether  he  has  some 
gracious  affection,  or  none  at  all ;  are  inquiries  concern- 
ing which  an  enlightened  conscience  may  be  satisfied. 
"  Beloved,  if  our  hearts  condemn  us  not,"  saith  the 
apostle,  "  then  have  we  confidence  toward  God." 

Since,  then,  the  full  assurance  of  hope  is  attainable,  and 


288  FULL    ASSURANCE    AT    THE    CROSS. 

it  is  the  duty  of  all  Christians  to  make  the  attainment,  it 
may  not  be  unprofitable  to  institute  the  inquiry,  Why  is 
this  attainment  so  rarely  possessed  ?  This  melancholy 
fact  may  be  accounted  for  on  some  or  all  of  the  follow- 
ing principles. 

The  first  that  we  shall  notice  is,  the  want  of  knowledge. 
The  more  doubting  and  fearful  will  often  be  found  among 
those  who  are  partially  ignorant  of  some  of  those  great 
truths  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  a  confident  assurance. 
They  are  apt  to  have  indistinct  and  unsatisfactory  views 
of  the  nature  of  true  religion,  and  are  partially  or  badly 
instructed  in  regard  to  the  difference  between  what  is 
spurious  and  what  is  genuine.  Others  there  are  who  are 
misinformed  with  respect  to  the  proper  evidence  of  true 
religion  in  the  soul.  They  have  imbibed  the  impression 
that  it  is  communicated  in  some  mysterious  way,  which 
cannot  be  intelligibly  explained ;  from  the  unexpected 
suggestion  of  some  passage  of  Scripture ;  or  from  some 
marvelous  dream,  or  vision;  or  from  some  strong  impre^- 
sion  made  upon  their  minds,  that  they  have  found  mercy, 
and  which  they  cannot  account  for,  unless  it  be  imme- 
diately from  God.  Or  perhaps  they  are  looking  for  just 
such  evidence  as  they  have  read  or  heard  of  in  the 
experience  of  others,  and  perceived  inwthe  same  way  as 
others  have  perceived  it.  It  would  not  be  surprising  that 
such  persons  are  found  in  darkness,  nor,  indeed,  if,  when 
they  find  peace,  they  are  fatally  deceived.  The  true  and 
only  way  of  coming  at  the  evidence  of  piety,  is  by  com- 
paring the  principles  and  affections  of  our  own  minds, 
and  the  conduct  of  our  lives,  with  the  Word  of  God,  and 
ascertaining,  by  that  standard,  whether  we  possess  the 
character  of  his  children.  Others  have  very  imperfect 
and  indistinct  views  of  the  way  of  salvation  by  the  Cross 
of  Christ.     They  do  not  apprehend  and  take  strong  hold 


FULL    ASSURANCE    AT    THE    CROSS. 


289 


of  the  truth  that  their  sins  are  all  atoned  for  by  the  blood 
of  the  Lamb;  that  on  their  believing  in  Jesus  Christ,  his 
righteousness  becomes  theirs ;  and  that  this  great  truth 
is  able  to  sustain  the  most  confident  hope  which  perishing 
men  ever  rested  upon  it.     They  do  not  discover  the  full 
provision  made  in  the  covenant  of  grace  for  their  comfort 
and  assurance.     They  do  not  understand  and  bring  home 
to  their  own  wants,  nor  apply  to  all  the  dangers  and  dif- 
ficulties of  their  spiritual  career,  the  unfailing  promises 
which  the  God  who  cannot  lie  has  made  to  the  "  right- 
eousness of  faith."     The  most  wary  and  cautious  mind 
can  ask  for  nothing  more  than  the  Cross  furnishes,  in 
order  to  impart  vigor,  and  buoyancy,  and  assurance  to  its 
expectations.     His  salvation  does  not  rest  upon  himself, 
but  upon  the  all-sufficient  God.     "  Willing  more  abund- 
antly to  show  unto  the  heirs  of  promise  the  immutability 
of  his  counsel,  he  hath  confirmed  it  by  an  oath,  that  by 
two  immutable  things  in  which  it  is  impossible  for  God 
to  he,  they  might   have   strong   consolation,  who   have 
fled  for  refuge  to  the  hope  set  before  them."     This  full- 
ness, this  preciousness,  this  immutability  of  the  Cross,  ar-e 
not  present  to  the  minds  of  doubting  and  weak  believers. 
This  most  wonderful  and  most  glorious  way  of  salvation, 
by  which  the  chief  of  sinners  is  made  an  heir  of  God 
and  a  fellow-heir  with  Jesus  Christ,  is  too  coldly  received. 
Their  minds  do  not  dwell  and  their  hopes  do  not  rest 
upon  it ;  nor  do  they  lose  their  apprehensions  in  an  entire 
surrender  and  perfect  abandonment  of  themselves  to  the 
sufficiency  and  faithfulness  of  this  Almighty  Redeemer. 
Others  doubt  if,  though  they  have  once  taken  strong  hold 
of  the  Cross,  they  will  not  let  go  their  hold.     They  are 
not  satisfied  of  the  certain  and  final  perseverance  of  all 
those  to  whom  God  has  once  given  true  faith  in  his  dear 
Son.     Doubts  as  to  this  truth  must  exert  a  disastrous 
13 


290  FULL    ASSURANCE    AT    THE    CROSS. 

influence  on  all  their  hopes  of  heaven.  If  there  is  no 
absolute  pledge  of  salvation  to  all  who  once  come  to 
Jesus  Christ — if  it  is  a  possible  thing  even  for  the  best  of 
Christians  to  be  justified  to-day,  and  under  condemnation 
to-morrow — who  knows  but  he  may  die  in  a  state  of  con- 
demnation'? Without  clear  views  of  God's  covenant 
faithfulness  in  making  his  people  faithful  to  the  last, 
there  is  no  certain  evidence  of  the  final  salvation  of  any, 
and  can  therefore  be  no  such  thing  as  the  full  assurance 
of  hope.  Ignorance  or  hesitation  in  any  of  these  import- 
ant articles  of  God's  revealed  truth  necessarily  begets  a 
doubtful  hope. 

Another  reason  why  this  attainment  is  comparatively 
so  rare  is,  the  ivant  of  larger  measures  of  grace.  If  the 
power  of  holiness  in  the  heart  is  the  only  evidence 
of  being  in  a  gracious  state,  it  is  not  wonderful  that 
this  evidence  is  not  discovered  in  those  who  have  but 
small  measures  of  holiness.  "  Christ  in  you  the  hope  of 
glory."  Where  the  image  of  Christ  is  but  faintly  drawn, 
it  is  but  faintly  discovered.  Remaining  depravity,  in- 
dwelling, and  especially  outward  sin,  are  always  the 
source  of  doubt  and  uncertaint5^  They  shake  our  hopes. 
Where  the  conscience  is  sensitive,  it  is  very  difficult  to 
live  at  a  distance  from  God,  and  in  a  state  of  coldness 
and  formality,  remissness  and  negligence,  without  ques- 
tioning the  genuineness  of  our  faith.  God  never  meant 
that  careless  Christians,  and  those  who  are  in  a  state  of 
declension,  and  live  without  an  abiding  impression  of  his 
presence,  should  enjoy  a  full  assurance.  Distressing 
apprehensions  and  deep  darkness  overshadow  the  minds 
of  all  that  class  of  Christians.  "  He  that  followeth  after 
me,"  says  the  Saviour,  "  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but 
shall  have  the  light  of  life." 

Another  reason  why  this  attainment  is  so  unfrequently 


FULL  ASSURANCE  AT  THE  CROSS.       291 

made  is,  that  Christians  are  very  apt  to  make  their  hopes 
their  idol.     They  think  more  of  their  hopes  than  of  their 
holiness  ;  more  of  their  hopes  than  of  God.     And  God 
smites  their  Dagon,  and  it  falls  headless,  and  with  its 
lifeless  trunk  before  the  Ark.     They  are  more  anxious 
to  have  the  evidence  that  they  are  Christians,  than  to  he 
Christians.     What  if  they  discover  no  evidence ;  do  they 
less  desire  to  fear  God  and  love  his  Son  ?     What  if  they 
"walk  in  darkness,  and  have  no  light;"  would  they 
desire  on  this  account  to  trust  no  more  "  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord,  and  stay  upon  their  God  ]"   There  is  too  much 
selfishness  in  such  a  religion  as  this,  to  be  buoyant  with 
hope.     Such    Christians  are  always  thinking  of  them- 
selves, and  talking  about  themselves.     Their  hopes,  their 
darkness,  their  experience,  are  more  to  them  than  all  the 
world  beside  !     I  have  seen  not  a  little  religion  like  this, 
and  I  doubt  whether  it  is  possible  for  the  human  mind, 
in  this  morbid  state,  ever  to  possess  the  silent,  strong, 
steady  assurance  of  hope.     An  assured  hope  is  not  like 
the  mountain  torrent,  but  like  a  stream  flowing  from  a 
living  fountain,  and  often  so  quietly  that  it  is  scarcely 
visible  but  for  the  verdure  on  its  banks.     Nor  does  it 
cease  to  flow,  though  it  sometimes  runs  under  ground ; 
nor  does  it  less  certainly  find  its  way  to  the  ocean  of  a 
blessed  eternity.     It  is  rarely  attained  in  the  direct  pur- 
suit of  it.     It  comes  in  the  pursuit  of  holiness,  and  in  the 
faithful  and  diligent  performance  of  every  duty.    It  comes 
as  the  gift  of  God,  with  all  the  other  graces  that  he  gives, 
and  is  never  found  alone. 

Another  reason  which  prevents  the  more  frequent  en- 
joyment of  this  assurance  will  be  found  in  the  deep  and 
strong  impressions  which  many  good  men  possess  of  the 
suhtilty  and  deceitfulness  of  their  own  hearts.  They  know 
that  the  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  despe- 


292      FULL  ASSURANCE  AT  THE  CROSS. 

rately  wicked.  It  is  not  often,  if  ever,  that  our  impres- 
sions of  this  truth  exceed  the  reality  of  the  truth  itself. 
Sin  often  puts  on  the  appearance  of  holiness,  both  in  its 
inward  emotions  and  its  outward  expression  and  conduct. 
There  is,  doubtless,  great  danger,  and  especially  in 
minds  that  are  characteristically  disingenuous,  lest  those 
apparent  graces  which  flow  from  a  supremely  selfish 
heart,  should  be  substituted  for  those  which  are  the  genu- 
ine fruits  of  the  spirit.  Men  sometimes  make  greater 
efforts  to  persuade  themselves  and  others  that  they  are 
Chtistians,  than  to  he  Christians  in  reality.  It  were  no 
unexpected  event  that  such  persons  should  take  up  with 
a  false  hope.  Very  much  the  same  outward  conduct  that 
flows  from  holy,  may,  for  a  time  at  least,  also  be  the 
effect  of  unholy  and  ungracious  principles.  A  well-gov- 
erned selfishness,  wise  discretion  and  policy,  may  lead 
an  immoral  man  to  reform  his  outward  conduct — a  dis- 
honest man  to  acts  of  justice  and  honesty — a  selfish  man 
to  acts  of  kindness  and  beneficence.  The  strong  Phari- 
seeism  and  self-righteousness  of  the  natural  heart,  have 
also  produced  many  striking  examples  of  systematic  de- 
votion. Many  a  Christian,  in  frequently  reflecting  on 
facts  like  these,  feels  afraid  of  accrediting  the  genuine- 
ness of  his  own  piety.  He  does  not  see  why  he  may  not 
be  deceived  as  well  as  others,  nor  why  his  graces  may 
not  be  counterfeit  as  well  as  those  of  other  men. 

There  are  two  things  which  may  serve  to  chasten,  if  not 
entirely  subdue  and  eradicate,  this  causeless  diffidence. 
The  one  is,  that  the  apparent  goodness  which  floAvs  from  an 
unregenerated  heart  is  seldom,  if  eveY,  permanent.  When 
the  storm  rages,  and  the  sun  beats,  the  fruit  that  grows 
upon  such  a  tree  becomes  blighted,  and  withers,  and  falls 
off.  There  is  a  weak  point  in  the  character  of  the  hypo- 
crite and  self-deceived,  that  sooner  or  later  discovers  itself. 


FULL    ASSURANCE    AT    THE    CROSS.  293 

The  cares  of  this  world,  some  unexpected  change  in  his 
outward  condition,  bringing-  with  it  unlooked-for  pros- 
perity, or  sudden  and  disheartening  tribulation,  prove  to 
be  a  trial  of  his  faith  which  he  cannot  endure.  The 
obligations  of  his  apparent  piety  perplex  and  embarrass 
him,  and  he  throws  them  off.  They  are  not  suited  to 
his  depraved  mind,  and  he  returns  to  his  idols.  He  is 
not  governed  by  the  principles  of  the  Gospel,  nor  does  he 
feel  the  force  of  its  motives.  When  sorely  pressed  with 
temptation,  the  restraints  of  a  Christian  profession  will 
not  bind  him,  and  he  is  sure  to  break  through  them,  and 
show,  by  incontestible  signs,  that  his  heart  is  not  right 
with  God.  God  is  wont  to  place  his  true  and  faithful 
people  in  situations  in  which  they  exhibit  their  true  char- 
acter, and  in  which  it  appears  unclouded,  and  in  all  the 
light  of  truth  and  beauties  of  holiness  ;  and  he  is  also 
wont  to  place  the  hypocritical,  and  faithless,  and  self- 
deceived  in  situations  in  which  all  their  once  favorable 
appearances  vanish,  and  they  show  themselves  to  be  just 
what  they  are.  He  has  said,  "  All  the  churches  shall 
know  that  I  am  he  who  searcheth  the  reins  and  the 
hearts."  He  tries  the  faithful  until  he  manifests  their 
faithfulness,  and  he  more  usually  tries  the  unfaithful 
until  their  unfaithfulness  is  manifest.  There  is  no  evidence 
of  piety  so  decisive,  as  habitual  and  persevering  obedience 
to  the  will  of  God.  The  other  thought  to  which  I  refer 
is,  that  good  men  may  be  unduly  afraid  of  being  deceived. 
They  may  be  rational  on  every  other  subject,  and  irrational 
on  this.  They  may  be  governed  by  the  laws  of  evidence  on 
every  other  subject,  and  on  this  be  perfect  sceptics.  The 
Great  Adversary  is  not  a  little  interested  in  fostering  this 
sort  of  scepticism,  and  thus  spoiling  their  comfort.  There 
are  no  graces  so  humble  and  vigorous,  no  light  of  God's 
countenance  so  clear  and  joyous,  and  no  hope  so  tranquil, 


294       FULL  ASSURANCE  AT  THE  CROSS. 

as  not  to  be  olisciired  and  disturbed  by  the  suggestion, 
Is  it  not  possible  that,  after  all,  I  am  deceived  ?  What  if 
good  men  should  always  reason  thus  %  What  if,  at  the 
moment  when  the  Psalmist  was  affirming,  "  as  the  hart 
panteth  after  the  water-brooks,  so  panteth  my  soul  after 
thee  ;"  what  if,  in  the  midst  of  that  triumphant  announce- 
ment of  Paul,  "  I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered,  and  the 
time  of  my  departure  is  at  hand;"  these  holy  men  had 
given  way  to  the  suggestion.  Is  it  not  a  possible  thing 
that  I  may  be  deceived  ? — who  does  not  see  the  absurdity 
of  such  an  hypothesis  1  If  there  is,  as  we  have  seen,  cer- 
tain evidence  of  piety,  every  Christian  is  bound  to  dis- 
cern and  rely  upon  it.  Objections  to  a  man's  piety, 
when  it  is  fairly  proved  to  his  own  mind  by  certain  evi- 
dence, are  of  no  weight.  The  proof  rests  upon  his 
knowledge  ;  the  objection  upon  his  ignorance.  We  can- 
not conceive  a  stronger  objection  to  the  piety  of  Peter 
than  his  thrice-repeated  and  j^rofane  denial  of  his  Master ; 
but  it  did  not  and  could  not  prove  that  he  was  destitute 
of  grace,  because  other  things  had  furnished,  and  con- 
tinued to  furnish,  certain  evidence  that  he  was  a  renewed 
man.  He  could  still  say,  ''  Lord,  thou  knowest  all 
things,  thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee." 

It  becomes  the  people  of  God,  in  forming  a  judgment 
of  their  own  character,  to  judge  of  themselves  with  un- 
biased impartiality.  They  have  no  right  to  judge  too 
favorably  of  themselves,  nor  too  unfavorably  ;  nor  are 
they  any  more  justified  in  mistaking  gracious  for  ungra- 
cious affections,  t' an  tho:=^e  which  are  ungracious  for  those 
that  are  gracious.  If  they  are  impartially  attentive  to 
what  passes  within  their  own  bosoms,  they  will  not  form 
an  unrighteous  judgment,  nor  will  they  so  often  be  in- 
volved in  perplexity.  No  good  ever  comes  from  f^loomy 
and  disconsolate  state  of  mind,  nor  is  it  any  expression 


FULL  ASSURANCE  AT  THE  CROSS.      295 

of  any  one  Christian  grace.  Those  persons  who  take  a 
painful  satisfaction  in  pondering  upon  their  outward 
troubles  and  inward  conflicts,  who  choose  to  dwell  on 
their  disconsolate  state,  and  who  do  little  else  than  call 
in  all  the  melancholy  objects  and  associations  in  their 
power,  to  augment  their  despondency,  have  very  mis- 
taken views  of  the  nature  of  true  piety.  If  I  am 
addressing  any  one  child  of  God  of  this  character,  I 
would  say  to  such  a  Christian,  that  he  dishonors  the 
sources  of  consolation  that  are  treasured  up  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  ;  that  he  has  much  more  reason  to  contemplate  the 
goodness  of  God  than  his  severity,  and  his  past  and  prom- 
ised mercies  than  his  present  frowns ;  and  that  it  is  his 
own  spirit  of  distrust  which  is  his  greatest  enemy. 

There  is  one  way  of  obtaining  the  full  assurance  of 
hope,  which  is  almost  always  successful :  it  is,  by  grow- 
ing in  grace.  Large  and  replenished  measures  of  grace 
have  a  happy  tendency  in  removing  those  doubts  Avhich 
distress  the  mind,  and  so  often  make  it  like  the  troubled 
sea  when  it  cannot  rest.  They  are  naturally  attended  by 
increasing  knowledge  of  the  truth,  by  invigorated  confi- 
dence in  God,  and  by  that  heaven-imparted  gratitude  and 
cheerfulness  which  make  the  yoke  of  Christ  easy,  and 
his  burden  light.  "  Then  shall  we  know,  if  we  follow 
on,  to  know  the  Lord ;  his  going  forth  is  prepared  as  the 
morning ;  and  he  shall  come  unto  us  as  the  rain,  as  the 
latter  and  former  rain  to  the  earth."  That  is  a  most 
precious  exhortation  of  the  affectionate  apostle,  ''Where- 
fore, my  beloved  brethren,  ca'st  not  away  your  confidence, 
which  hath  great  recompense  of  reward."  Those  sea- 
sons are  the  most  humble,  the  most  distinguished  for 
prayer,  the  most  active,  and  the  most  strongly  marked 
by  self-denying  effort,  that  are  the  most  full  of  hope. 
Piety  is  then  the  most  winning  and  lovely.     Assurance 


296  FULL    ASSURANCE    AT    THE    CROSS. 

is  no  phantom.  Press  after  it.  ' '  Give  diligence  to  make 
your  calling  and  election  sure."  When  the  storm  lowers, 
look  aloft.  Your  shattered  bark  may  labor  and  plunge, 
but  the  wind  is  fair,  and  the  land  is  nigh. 

There  is  but  one  class  of  persons  that  have  a  divine 
warrant  for  despair :  they  are  those  whose  impenitence 
is  incorrigible.  We  can  assure  all  such  persons  that 
religion  is  the  sweetest  consolation  under  every  trial  of 
this  life,  effectual  support  in  the  hour  of  death,  and  the 
triumphant  expectation  of  a  "far  more  exceeding  and 
eternal  weight  of  glory ;"  but  we  must  also  assure  them, 
that  the  same  reasons  which  urge  the  penitent  to  hope, 
urge  the  incorrigible  to  fear.  Sooner  or  later,  every  in- 
corrigible sinner  must  despair.  He  will  outlive  his  hopes. 
Absolute,  perfect  despair  will,  ere  long,  be  one  of  the 
very  elements  of  his  being.  And  is  this  the  heritage, 
the  frightful  heritagOj  of  any  one  of  those  who  read  these 
pages  1  Where  is  the  man  that  must  be  such  a  sufferer "? 
My  heart  fails  me  in  thinking  of  his  woes.  Of  all  the 
spectacles  of  grief  ever  contemplated,  the  most  mournful 
is  such  a  man. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

THE   WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY  THE    CROSS. 

It  were  a  gorgeous  description  to  speak  in  appropriate 
words  and  befitting  imagery  of  the  things  of  time  and 
sense.  All  that  can  please  the  eye  of  man  seems  to  be 
spread  around  him  for  his  gratification.  The  universe 
itself  is  displayed  before  him,  like  a  magic  picture 
endowed  with  life  and  motion,  beauty  and  grandeur,  in 
an  endless  variety  of  forms.  The  ocean  heaves  its  bil- 
lows, the  torrent  dashes  from  the  precipice,  the  stream 
glides  through  the  rich  meadow,  for  him.  The  lofty 
mountain,  the  quiet  valley,  the  vast  and  silent  forest,  are 
for  him.  From  the  teeming  grass  at  his  feet  up  to  the 
unnumbered  and  immeasurable  orbs  above  him,  a  wide 
field  is  extended  for  the  eye,  and  imagination,  and  heart 
of  man.  Gold  glitters,  honors  are  resplendent,  pleasure 
sparkles,  to  inflate  his  avarice  and  pride,  and  to  infatuate 
his  sensuality.  The  domain  is  vast,  its  wealth  countless, 
its  beauty  ravishing,  and  its  variety  exhaustless.  The 
reason  with  which  man  is  endowed  has  in  a  great  degree 
subdued  the  elements  under  his  control ;  every  year  sees 
new  trophies  added  to  his  conquests  over  the  kingdom  of 
nature ;  earth,  sea  and  air  own  his  sway.  The  brute  cre- 
ation minister  to  his  needs  and  pleasures — fear  him,  love 
him,  obey  him.  The  intelligent  beings,  also,  who  walk 
the  earth  and  constitute  its  chief  worth  and  adornment, 
13* 


298         THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS. 

the  honors  and  pleasures  they  pursue,  their  toil  and 
attainments,  offer  a  busy  and  attractive  scene  to  his  eye. 
Their  literature,  their  bustle  and  traffic,  their  arts,  their 
talent  and  character,  their  schemes,  improvements,  pas- 
sions, affections  and  purposes,  form  not  the  least  interest- 
ing part  of  the  great  spectacle.  It  would  seem  as  if  in 
all  this  there  were  enough  to  satisfy  our  hearts — as  if  the 
utmost  craving  of  our  desires  would  here  find  a  limit. 

It  were  no  marvel,  formed  as  it  is  with  such  exqui- 
site wisdom  and  goodness,  and  so  full  of  God  and 
of  love  to  the  creatures  he  has  made,  if  this  exterior 
world  should  present  strong  attractions.  But  the  Cross 
of  Christ  possesses  attractions  that  are  yet  more  strong. 
"  God  forbid,"  says  the  great  apostle,  "  that  I  should 
glory,  save  in  the  Cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by 
whom  the  world  is  crucified  to  me,  and  I  to  the  world!" 
"  What  things  were  gain  to  me,  those  I  counted  loss  for 
Christ ;  yea,  doubtless,  and  I  count  all  things  but  loss  for 
the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  my 
Lord,  for  whom  I  have  suffered  the  loss  of  all  things,  and 
do  count  them  but  dung  that  I  may  win  Christ." 

The  power  of  the  Cross  in  thus  crucifying  the  world, 
every  Christian  has  experienced.  In  this  great  feature 
of  his  character  he  is  not  what  he  once  was.  "  If  any 
man  be  in  Christ',  he  is  a  new  creature  ;  old  things  are 
done  away,  and  all  things  are  become  new."  The  turn- 
ing of  the  thoughts  and  desires  from  time  to  eternity  is 
the  sum  and  substance  of  that  spiritual  renovation  by 
which  Christianity  lives  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  with- 
out which  no  man  can  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Men  there  have  been,  who,  in  comparison  with  other 
and  more  enduring  interests,  have  not  thought  this  world 
worthy  of  a  glance.  If  they  thought  of  it,  it  did  not 
absorb  their  attention  ;  if  they  sought  it,  they  were  not 


THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS.  299 

ensnared  by  it;  if  they  felt  an  interest  in  it,  it  was  only 
that  interest  which  religion  enjoins. 

The  Cross  sets  in  their  true  light  the  things  of  time  and 
sense.  It  shows  that  they  are  but  the  things  of  time 
and  sense.  It  proclaims  that,  with  all  their  enchantment, 
they  have  this  inherent  blemish,  that  they  are  temporal. 
The  remedy  for  a  sinning,  is  a  remedy  for  a  dying  race  :  it 
shows  nothing  more  clearly,  than  that  the  objects  of  sense 
are  limited  to  time  as  well  as  to  earth  ;  they  relate  to  the 
present,  and  have  no  concern  with  the  future.  No 
quality  nor  excellence  can  render  them  permanent.  If 
beauty  could  render  them  durable,  why  is  the  flower  so 
fading,  and  why  does  infant  loveliness  wither  on  its 
mother's  bosom  1  If  grandeur  could  render  them  per- 
manent, wherefore  do  empires  crumble,  and  the  dark 
clouds  dissolve  in  lightning  and  thunder?  If  learning, 
and  intellect,  and  wit,  and  fancy  could  give  them  per- 
petuity, why  are  names  forgotten,  and  volumes  lost, 
which  once  filled  the  world  with  their  fame?  Or  if 
strength  and  variety  would  make  them  lasting,  wherefore 
is  it  that  princes  "die  like  men,"  or  "riches  take  to 
themselves  wings,  and  fly  away  as  an  eagle  toward 
heaven  ?"  and  why  do  forests  fall,  or  the  whirlwind  pass 
away  that  uproots  them  ?  The  rainbow  that  plays  in  the 
adverse  sunlight  seems  for  the  moment  a  vast  and  stable 
arch,  that  spans  the  earth,  and  reaches  to  the  clouds  :  we 
look  again,  and  it  is  gone  ;  not  a  vestige  remains ;  all  is 
vacancy.  Thus  it  is  with  all  earthly  things.  They  are 
like  a  vision,  or  like  those  false  waters  which  flow  in 
eastern  deserts,  and  at  the  approach  of  the  thirsting  wan- 
derer vanish  into  air.  The  "  pleasures  of  sin  are  for  a 
season;"  the  "fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away." 
They  are  dark  shadows  which  fall  upon  the  world,  when 
seen  from  the  Cross.     Nor  is  it  merely  the  evanescent 


300         THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS. 

nature  of  the  world  which  the  Cross  discloses,  but  its  en- 
snaring and  corrupting  nature.  The  things  that  are  seen 
are  in  perpetual  conflict  for  the  mastery  over  the  mind. 
Whatever  "  regales  the  life  of  sense,"  has  a  tendency 
to  withdraw  our  hearts  from  the  "  life  of  faith;"  while 
whatever  "  regales  and  satisfies  the  life  of  faith  with- 
draws them  from  the  life  of  sense."  This  is  one  of  the 
lessons  of  the  Cross.  Light  and  darkness,  good  and  evil, 
bitter  and  sweet,  are  not  more  irreconcilable  tlian  Christ 
and  the  world.  Neither  is  satisfied  without  controlling 
the  whole  man,  and  therefore  they  are  perpetually  at 
war.  Every  man  is  either  a  whole-hearted  Christian,  or 
a  whole-hearted  worldling. 

With  the  same  clearness  does  the  Cross  set  in  their 
true  light  the  great  realities  of  the  world  that  is  invisible. 
It  reveals  things  of  a  different  nature  and  a  higher  order 
than  the  things  of  time.  What  are  they  ?  The  mind  is 
at  once  chastened  and  sobered  in  the  contemplation  of 
them.  The  imagination  cannot  paint  them,  because  it 
cannot  grasp  them,  nor  is  it  adequate  to  receive  just  and 
full  impressions  of  their  excellence,  beauty  and  grandeur. 
Negatively,  we  do  indeed  know  much  of  that  world  which 
lies  beyond  the  horizon  of  this  earth.  The  Cross  has 
taught  us  that  there  is  no  sin  there,  and  no  sorrow,  and 
no  tears.  There  is  no  hunger  and  no  thirst.  There  is 
no  sickness  and  no  death;  for  "life  and  immortality  are 
brought  to  light  by  the  Gospel."  Throughout  the  vast 
extent  of  that  illimitable  empire,  there  is  not  a  pang,  not 
a  sigh.  Something  we  know  absolutely  also  :  a  few  rays 
have  reached  us  from  those  distant  spheres,  and  these  are 
so  glorious  and  dazzling  as  to  overwhelm  us  with  won- 
der. We  know  it  is  a  world  of  surpassing  splendor,  of 
life  and  light,  of  perfect  harmony  and  unutterable  joy 
—all   the  purchase  of  his  Cross.      There  is  the  King 


i 


THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS.         301 

eternal,  immortal  and  invisible ;  the  spiritual  kingdom 
which  originated  in  his  infinite  grace ;  the  truth  and 
principles  by  which  that  kingdom  is  governed  ;  the  privi- 
leges which  it  confers,  its  liberties  and  its  divine  charter. 
There  are  the  myriads  of  the  unfallen,  the  spirits  of  just 
men  made  perfect,  the  Lamb  that  was  slain,  and  the 
heaven  which  is  his  and  their  dwelling-place  echoing  to 
anthems  of  praise.  Or  if  we  turn  to  other  and  different 
scenes  of  which  the  Cross  admonishes  us,  they  are  the 
throne  on  which  He  sits  before  Avhose  face  the  heavens 
and  the  earth  flee  away,  and  no  place  is  found  for  them ; 
they  are  the  final  sentence  and  reward — the  wicked 
gone  and  going  into  everlasting  punishment,  and  the 
righteous  into  life  eternal. 

Nor  have  any  of  these  the  inherent  blemish  which 
attaches  itself  to  the  objects  of  sense.  The  Cross  is 
emblematical  of  that  eternity  whence  its  sufferer  came, 
and  that  imperishable  heaven  whither  he  is  now  gone. 
It  is  their  immortality  which  constitutes  their  glory.  The 
material  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  these 
things  shall  not  pass  away.  There  the  reign  of  life 
begins,  and  the  destroyers  are  there  destroyed.  The 
relentless  scythe  of  time  with  which  he  sweeps  spoiler 
and  spoiled  into  oblivion,  there  has  no  power.  As  God 
himself  is  infinite  and  eternal,  so  likewise  his  abode,  the 
dwelling  of  his  glory,  the  inheritence  of  his  people,  is 
permanent  and  secure.  Its  pillars  are  supported  by  his 
mighty  hand,  its  roof  is  spread  out  and  sustained  by 
his  power  and  love,  and  it  will  stand  in  imperishable 
majesty  forever.  "In  my  Father's  house  are  many 
mansions,"  says  the  Saviour  ;  "  if  it  were  not  so  I  would 
have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you."  And 
so  will  the  mighty  prison  of  his  justice,  with  its  ada- 
mantine gates,  and  its  impassable  walls  of  fire,  and  the 


302         THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS. 

smoke  of  its  torments  ascending  forever  and  ever,  remain 
imperishable.  There  is  no  more  effective  demonstration 
of  the  perdition  of  ungodly  men,  than  is  furnished  by 
the  Cross.  "If  these  things  be  done  in  the  green 
tree,  what  shall  be  done  in  the  dry?"  Eternity  is  a 
thought  which  in  its  full  import  is  too  wonderful  for  man 
to  fathom.  We  repeat  the  word ;  we  endeavor  to  de- 
fine it,  to  realize  it,  but  finite  faculties  are  unequal  to  the 
task.  We  look  at  this  earth,  so  sure  and  steadfast,  the 
receptacle  of  our  frail  bodies  when  they  sleep  beneath 
its  surface;  we  survey  its  everlasting  hills,  and  its 
mighty  rivers  flowing  and  still  flowing  on  in  their  time- 
worn  channels;  we  gaze  upon  the  stars  which  shine 
upon  the  graves  of  countless  generations  ;  but  these  offer 
only  a  faint  similitude  of  the  duration  which  survives  the 
ravages  of  time,  and  lives  in  the  boundless  future. 

The  views  which  Christian  men  take  of  eternity  are 
peculiar  to  themselves,  because  they  have  peculiar  views 
and  feelings  towards  the  Cross  of  Christ.  They  are  so, 
in  the  source  and  principle  in  which  they  originate.  The 
evidence  which  the  lights  of  reason  and  nature  throw 
upon  the  great  realities  of  the  coming  world  is  indeed 
amazingly  strong.  Some  of  the  loftiest  minds  of  an- 
tiquity seemed  to  have  a  foreshadowing  of  these  great 
truths.  But  they  had  no  point  of  departure  upon  a 
heavenly  chart  when  they  launched  upon  tlieir  voyage 
of  discovery.  Their  attempts  are  remarkable,  in  many 
respects,  as  a  display  of  comprehensive  intellect  and 
acute  powers  of  disquisition ;  but  they  remain  as  monu- 
ments of  the  inability  of  minds,  unaided  by  heavenly 
wisdom,  to  grasp  the  wonders  of  eternity.  The  most 
satisfactory  reasoning  is  not  always  the  pledge  of  perfect 
intellectual  repose.  The  experience  of  the  past  has 
given  too  many  instances  of  deductions  that  seemed  se- 


THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS.  393 

curely  established,  and  exalted  to  the  rank  of  incontro- 
vertible truths,  which  time  and  evidence  have  dislodged 
from  their  high  station,  and  consigned  to  the  long  cata- 
logue of  errors  and  false  hypotheses  which,  for  a  while, 
amused  mankind.  The  convictions  of  a  Christian  mind 
in  relation  to  the  vast  hereafter,  are  founded  only  in 
that  confidence  in  the  divine  testimony  which  is  the  sub- 
stitute for  all  other  evidence.  "  This  is  the  victory 
which  overcometh  the  world,  even  your  faith.''''  For 
man,  who  is  "born  like  the  wild  ass's  colt,"  to  reason 
where  the  infinite  and  unerring  intelligence  has  decided, 
is  the  rebellion  of  the  created  against  the  uncreated  mind. 
With  the  revelations  of  the  Cross  in  our  hands,  the  reali- 
ties of  eternity  are  truths  which  we  do  not  wish  proved 
so  much  as  felt.  Where  the  Cross  has  spoken,  faith  has 
unwavering  confidence.  To  a  believing  mind,  Jesus 
Christ  seems,  in  his  word,  to  present  himself  a  second 
time  in  his  character  as  the  Creator.  Just  as  at  his  word 
the  visible  world  rose  into  order  and  beauty  from  the 
original  chaos,  so,  when  he  speaks  in  his  word,  things 
unseen  step  forth  into  life,  and  put  on  forms  of  reality. 
They  are  not  visions,  but  have  a  substantial  existence, 
when  discovered  by  that  "  faith  which  is  of  the  operation 
of  God."  The  faith  of  the  true  Christian  is  one  of  the 
senses  of  the  soul.  It  is  the  taste  which  has  a  sensible 
relish  for  divine  things  ;  it  is  the  touch  which  is  conscious 
of  the  correspondence  betv/een  the  renewed  nature  and 
its  Divine  Author ;  it  is  the  delicate  sense  which  inhales 
those  fragrant  breezes  of  heaven  which  fan  and  blow  upon 
it ;  it  is  the  ear  which  hears  when  God  speaks  ;  it  is  the 
eye  to  which  things  unseen  are  no  longer  shadows,  because 
"  God  hath  revealed  them  by  his  Spirit."  This  is  the 
source  and  principle  from  which  all  right  views  of  eternal 
realities  originate,  and  which  give  tliem  their  peculiarity. 


304         THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS. 

Nor  are  they  less  peculiar  in  their  strength  and  vividness. 
Because  they  are  the  convictions  of  certitude,  they  are 
strong  and  impressive  convictions.  They  differ  from  those 
wliicfi  are  found  in  the  minds  of  men,  who,  while  they  be- 
lieve them,  give  them  a  place  merely  in  their  own  mental 
abstractions,  and  lay  them  aside  among  the  well-arranged 
and  recognized  articles  of  a  long  established  and  orthodox 
creed.  They  are  not  so  much  the  views  of  the  student, 
as  of  the  Christian  ;  not  so  much  the  impressions  of  the 
cautious  reasoner,  or  the  erudite  professor  of  science,  who 
submits  his  conviction  to  the  force  of  demonstration,  as 
the  vivid  and  thrilling  impressions  of  one  who,  because 
he  believes  them,  feels  their  power.  There  is  a  belief 
which  takes  hold  of  the  intellect  only,  but  does  not  reach 
the  affections.  It  is  the  cold  assent  which  we  accord  to 
the  truth  of  mere  speculative  propositions.  It  does  not 
penetrate  beyond  the  surface,  and  is  often,  indeed,  an 
unwilling  and  reluctant  conviction.  It  "  leaves  its  marks 
upon  the  intellect;"  it  may  even  penetrate  the  conscience ; 
but  it  does  not  reach  the  heart.  It  scarcely  agitates,  and 
never  so  interests  as  to  elevate  and  purify.  It  is  the  belief 
which  many  a  man  entertains  of  the  existence  and  love- 
liness of  virtue,  while  it  has  no  influence  upon  his  affec- 
tions. It  is  the  belief  of  a  philosopher  in  the  claims  of 
humanity :  it  brings  conviction,  but  no  acts  of  benevolence 
or  philanthropy.  It  is  the  belief  of  a  despot  in  the  beauty 
and  excellence  of  freedom,  which  does  not  excite  a  spark 
of  patriotism,  or  love  of  justice.  To  prove  to  one  blind 
that  there  is  a  sun  in  the  heavens,  were  but  a  poor 
substitute  for  that  glorious  light  which  plays  around  his 
sightless  eyeballs.  His  belief  in  it  is  rational,  cold ;  but 
it  is  not  sight :  there  is  no  joy  in  it,  such  as  greets  all 
animated  nature,  at  the  dawning  of  a  new  day.  There 
is  a  strength  and  vividness  in  the  impressions  of  eternal 


THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS.  305 

things  entertained  by  a  spiritual  mind,  which  the  world 
knows  not  of.  They  are  not  empty  musings,  but  ele- 
vated, heart-stirring  themes.  They  have  an  unction  from 
the  Holy  One.  They  quicken  the  pulse,  and  cause  the 
bosom  to  throb  with  emotion. 

And  they  are  habitual,  if  not  steadfast  views.  While 
neither  perfect  constancy  nor  perfect  uniformity  may  be 
claimed  for  them,  they  possess  a  power  which,  when  duly 
felt,  extends  itself  to  all  times,  as  well  as  all  places. 
They  are  not  the  objects  of  those  spasmodic  actions  of 
the  mind,  which  are  vigorous  and  sprightly  to-day,  and 
to-morrow  have  lost  all  their  energy.  They  are  not  in 
their  own  nature  a  flickering  flame,  but  one  that  burns 
steadily,  because  ignited  at  the  inner  sanctuary.  In  all 
worldly  enterprises,  a  vacillating  turn  of  mind  is  one  of 
the  surest  indications  of  weakness,  as  well  as  of  ultimate 
defeat.  It  is  not,  surely,  less  so  in  a  religious  life,  where 
the  aim  and  end  are  one,  and  the  means  are  one,  and  the 
grace  to  help  is  one,  and  where  all  are  capable  of  pro- 
ducing a  uniform  effect,  and  actually  urge  to  a  uniform 
course.  Experience  and  observation,  sufficiently  painful, 
have  abundantly  proved  that  one  of  the  more  unhappy 
characteristics  of  a  certain  kind  of  piety  is,  that  it  is 
subject  to  strong  and  fitful  excitement.  It  may  be  in- 
woven with  the  truths  of  the  Cross,  but  it  is  not  nour- 
ished by  them  as  it  should  be.  The  goodness  of  Ephraira 
was  as  "  the  morning  cloud  and  the  early  dew  that  passeth 
away."  The  objects  of  faith  have  in  themselves  no  such 
mutability.  God  never  alters  ;  heaven  never  alters  ;  hell 
never  alters;  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  never  aHer.  A 
spiritual  mind  almost  instinctively  revolts  from  a  religion 
that  is  thus  varied  by  paroxysms.  It  "  meddles  not  with 
things  that  are  given  to  change."  Amid  all  the  varia- 
tions of  his  religious  experience,  his  views  of  things  that 


306         THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS. 

lie  beyond  the  present  world  are  the  least  variable ;  his 
faith  in  them  is  the  firmest  principle  of  his  spiritual  char- 
acter. 

Nor  is  it  of  less  importance  to  remark,  that  the  views 
of  eternal  realities  taken  at  the  Cross  are  welcome  and 
joyous  views.  Never  was  there  a  more  egregious  error 
than  that  strong  and  steadfast  views  of  the  realities  of  the 
eternal  world  are  joyless.  There  is  an  occasional  and 
cursory  view  of  them  that  is  indeed  pensive ;  while  there 
are  views  of  them  so  clear  and  vivid  that  they  never  fail 
to  awaken  and  sustain  bright  and  buoyant  emotions. 
This  is  their  true  nature.  It  were  proof  that  they  are  not 
what  they  are,  or  else  a  sure  indication  that  there  is  some- 
thing wrong  in  the  mind  that  contemplates  them,  where 
they  dry  up  the  sources  of  joy.  Unhappy  Christians 
there  are,  but  unhappy  Christianity  there  is  none.  There 
is  no  room  for  pensiveness  and  depression  where  eternal 
realities  form  the  sources  of  enjoyment.  They  are  not 
those  cold,  meagre  and  jejune  things  which  a  class  of 
minds  are  apt  to  regard  them  ;  but  rather  do  they  possess 
a  richness,  a  variety,  a  surpassing  beauty  and  loveliness, 
that  are  fitted  to  produce  those  warm  and  delighted  emo- 
tions after  which  the  renewed  nature  so  ardently  pants. 
In  his  more  favored  seasons,  the  Christian's  absorption 
in  them  is  like  that  of  the  artist  in  his  ideal  labors,  or 
like  that  of  the  student  in  his  favorite  themes.  It  is  not 
easy  for  him  to  lay  them  aside.  They  form  for  the  time 
a  part  of  his  being.  They  have  a  place  in  all  his  habits 
of  thought ;  they  are  his  air,  his  light,  the  element  in 
which  he  breathes,  the  very  life-blood  which  warms  his 
bosom.  Oh,  they  are  delighted  visions  !  They  are  hal- 
lowed, transporting,  transforming  views  which  the  Cross 
realizes  ;  he  lingers  amid  such  scenes,  and  with  delighted 
vision  gazes  upon  the  wonders  of  a  loftier  creation. 


THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS.  397 

It  were  not  surprising  if  such  views  should  exert  a, 
strong-  practical   influence.      There  is   no   part   of  the 
Christian  character  that  is  not  affected  by  them.     The 
Cross  is   the  mirror  which   reflects   eternity.      Things 
seen   and  temporal  throw  shadows  upon  it,  envelop  it 
with   clouds,   and   exhibit  the  picture   in  inexplicable 
confusion.      As,  in  looking  upon  the  canvas  on  which 
the  cunning  pencil  of  the  limner  has  portrayed  a  land- 
scape, or  the  human  features,  or  has  transferred  some 
memorable  fact  in  history,  if  we  would  see  its  true  merits, 
and  have  them  stand  out  before  the  eye  as  they  presented 
themselves  to  the  eye  of  the  artist,  we  must  view  it  from 
a  certain  point,  and  one  particular  light ;  so  is  it  only  as 
men  look  on  things  unseen  that  the  light  is  reflected 
which  exhibits  their  own  immortal  destiny.     The  Cross 
is  that  point  of  vision.    It  is  here  the  believer  feels  that  a 
few  years  at  most,  perhaps  a  brief  day,  is  all  that  sepa- 
rates him  from  that  vast  world  which  is  unseen  and  eter- 
nal.   This  clayey  tabernacle,  this  mud-walled  partition, 
broken  down,  and  we  live  and  move  amid  those  won- 
drous realities.     This  transparent  veil,  this  frail  and  per- 
ishable web  of  human  life,  which,  like  the  airy  gossa- 
mer, is  the  sport  of  every  breeze,  which  an  insect  may 
rend  in  twain,  a  cold  frost  blight,  or  a  damp  night  dis- 
solve, once  broken,  and  we  ourselves  become  a  part  of 
them.     It  is  but  a  little  step,  a  span's  breadth,  from  time 
to  eternity ;  let  but  a  breath,  a  pulse  stop,  and  the  finite 
is  exchanged  for  the  infinite.    Every  material  object  sug- 
gests to  a  contemplative,  a  truly  spiritual  mind,  objects 
that  are  immaterial ;  and,  as  if  conscious  that  his  destiny 
is  a  thing  apart  from  theirs,  they   are  continually  thrust- 
ing him  from  them,  and  are  urging  him  away.     Every 
wind  that  blows  wafts  him  toward  eternity ;  every  wave, 
every  current,  is  drifting  him  to  its  illimitable  shore.  The 


308         THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS. 

man  who  has  no  impressive  views  of  the  interminable 
future,  of  necessity  attaches  httle  value  to  his  own 
being-  beyond  that  of  a  crawling-  worm,  or  a  g"audy 
butterfly.  We  need  the  power  of  the  well-defined  and 
indestructible  thought,  that  what  we  now  are  is  but  the 
germ  of  a  deathless  existence  beyond  the  grave,  that  our 
present  being  is  but  the  rudiments  of  what  we  shall  be 
hereafter,  in  order  to  appreciate  ourselves.  The  thought 
of  Eternity  is  a  great  and  stupendous  thought.  Even 
viewed  at  a  distance,  and  as  something  in  which  we  can 
have  no  part,  it  must  overwhelm  with  its  magnitude  and 
grandeur.  But  combine  with  this  the  certainty  that  this 
eternity  will  be  ours,  as  time  is  now  ours — that  we  shall 
live  in  it  and  comprehend  it,  as  we  do  the  passing  moments 
of  this  life — and  this  world,  which  before  seemed  a  wil- 
derness, now  becomes  the  porch  and  vestibule  of  that 
•^^  building  of  God,"  that  "  house  not  made  with  hands, 
eternal  in  the  heavens."  That  man  regards  the  soul  as 
of  little  worth,  who  is  a  stranger  to  the  Cross  of  Christ. 
Not  until  he  views  his  own  existence  in  the  light  of  that 
immortality  which  the  Cross  has  stamped  upon  it,  does 
he  perceive  that  it  surpasses  in  value  all  the  wealth  and 
glories  of  the  material  creation.  His  body  shall  indeed, 
for  a  little  while,  sleep  under  the  clods  of  the  valley ;  but 
the  still  more  curiously-wrought  spirit  shall  hold  on  its 
way,  through  a  duration  that  shall  never  end,  beyond 
the  stars  and  above  the  wreck  of  earth.  The  winter  of 
the  grave  does  not  bind  it  in  its  chains.  The  spring-time 
of  a  new  year  dissolves  the  dull,  cold  ice  of  mortality — a 
year  marked  by  no  day,  nor  weeks,  nor  months — che- 
quered by  no  seasons — an  eternal  year  that  shall  roll 
onward  forever.  He  surveys  his  immortality  with  won- 
der, just  in  the  measure  in  which  he  surveys  the 
Cross  with  wonder.     It  is  not  a  visionary  existence  with 


THE  WORLD  CRUCIFIED  BY  THE  CROSS.    3  09 

which  he  is  endued,  nor  the  fairy-land  of  earth  for  which 
he  was  horn.  Higher  pleasures,  greater  honors,  more 
abundant  and  more  priceless  wealth,  are  displayed  before 
him,  and  from  the  Cross  he  learns  that  to  this  inheritance 
he  may  become  an  heir. 

This,  however,  be  it  ever  so  powerful,  is  but  a  single 
impression.  Such  views  exert  a  wider  and  deeper  influ- 
ence. They  impart  its  fitting  elevation  to  the  Christian 
character.  We  know  how  debased  and  degraded  the 
character  of  man  is  by  nature,  and  what  powerful  and 
well-adapted  agencies  the  God  of  love  employs  for  the 
purpose  of  elevating  and  purifying  it,  and  making  it  meet 
for  his  presence  and  favor,  and  the  holy  society  where  he 
dwells.  The  appropriate  force  and  energy  of  those  vari- 
ous and  combined  considerations  by  which  he  thus  acts 
upon  the  minds  of  men  consist  mainly,  if  not  entirely,  in 
the  things  that  lie  beyond  the  region  of  time  and  sense, 
and  of  which  the  Cross  is  the  great  witness.  Truth 
loses  its  distinctive  nature  and  properties,  it  is  pointless  and 
powerless,  when  once  severed  from  eternity.  It  can  no 
longer  perforate  the  conscience,  nor  penetrate  tlie  heart ; 
it  is  no  longer  "  the  fire  and  the  hammer  that  breaketh 
the  rock  in  pieces."  Eternity  alone  imparts  to  it  its 
beauty,  its  symmetry,  its  dignity,  its  authority.  Of  all 
important  and  essential  truth  eternity  itself  makes  a  part ; 
penetrating  and  mingling  itself  with  all  other  truths ; 
permeating  them  all ;  itself  the  truth  of  truths,  teaching 
and  enforcing  all  others,  and  by  virtue  of  which  they  are 
truths.  The  first  impulse  and  habitual  aliment  of  the 
Christian  character,  therefore,  will  be  found  in  the  con- 
templation of  those  invisible  realities  which  lie  beyond 
the  horizon  of  earthly  things.  This  is  both  the  starting- 
point  and  the  goal ;  the  beginning,  the  middle,  and  the 
end.     It  is  the  '^prize  of  our  high  calling;"  the  mark  to 


310         THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS. 

which  the  more  matured  in  religious  experience  may 
look  back,  and  to  which  both  the  aged  and  the  young, 
"  not  as  though  they  had  already  attained,"  may  alike 
look  forward.  The  eye  of  the  mind  must  see  what  the 
eye  of  sense  cannot  see — the  ear  of  the  soul  must  hear 
voices  which  never  fall  on  the  outward  hearing — this 
thinking  and  sensitive  existence  must  be  brought  into 
habitual  contact  with  a  coming  futurity — or  there  is  no 
hope  of  producing  within  it  a  conformity  to  God  and 
heaven. 

The  moral  history  of  man  is,  in  this  respect,  a  uniform 
history..  The  first  sound  that  enchains  the  ear  of  child- 
hood is  from  distant  spheres.  The  impression  which 
this  world  makes  upon  the  dawning  senses  is  gradual ; 
the  first  word  of  eternity  is  never  forgotten.  And  even 
where  the  hopeful  years  of  childhood  have  escaped  these 
aflfecting  instructions,  and  where  the  love  of  the  world 
and  the  influence  of  the  passions  have  warped  the  con- 
science and  chilled  the  sensibilities,  if  there  is  any  thought 
that  strikes  its  root  deep,  it  is  the  thought  of  eternity. 
That  indifference  to  the  claims  of  true  religion,  that 
apathy  and  moral  paralysis  which  are  the  unfailing 
symptoms  of  spiritual  death,  are  to  be  attributed  to  the 
power  of  things  seen  and  temporal.  Men  walk  around 
with  the  brutes  beneath  the  infinite  heavens,  w^ithout 
directing  their  eye  thitherward  ;  they  glide  down  the 
stream  of  time  without  looking  into  the  unfathomable 
eternity,  the  inexplorable  infinite,  compared  with  which 
earth  and  time  are  motes  and  vanity.  The  first  solemn 
and  deep  impression  made  upon  such  minds  is  associated 
with  some  startling  views  of  eternity.  In  the  midst  of 
temptation  this  is  the  thought  which  alarms  them.  In 
the  midst  of  mirth  the  sound  vibrates  on  their  ear,  and 
mars,  often  when  they  are  unconscious  of  it,  their  false 


THE  WORLD  CRUCIFIED  BY  THE  CROSS.    311 

peace.  Conscience,  though  disregarded  and  enslaved, 
like  the  thralls  who  bore  the  human  skull  into  the 
banqueting-halls  of  their  Egyptian  masters,  obtrudes  this 
thought  upon  their  hours  of  carelessness  and  merriment, 
and  not  in  vain  reminds  them  of  an  eternal  heaven,  and 
an  eternal  hell.  And  when,  by  the  gracious  power  of 
the  Divine  Spirit,  they  are  led  to  turn  their  feet  to  the  bet- 
ter country,  it  is  because  the  scenes  of  the  coming  world 
are  made  to  possess,  in  their  view,  a  reality,  importance 
and  nearness  which  they  had  never  attached  to  them 
before.  And  when,  in  their  progressive  but  too  tardy 
pilgrimage,  they  are  tempted  to  turn  aside  from  the 
straight  and  narrow  path  which  leads  thitherward,  no- 
thing so  certainly  recalls  them  from  their  wanderings  as 
some  unlooked-for  glimpse  of  the  opening  heavens.  The 
act  of  setting  their  affections  on  things  that  are  above,  de- 
taches them  from  things  that  are  on  the  earth.  The  vapid 
pleasures  of  earth  cannot  endure  the  strong  and  steady 
light  of  thoughts  and  affections  thus  concentrated.  The 
mind  that  has  a  heavenward  tendency,  instead  of  being 
carried  away  by  the  illusions  which  the  eye  of  sense 
throws  over  the  pageantry  of  the  world,  becomes  dis- 
ciplined to  the  effort  of  bringing  this  world  into  subser- 
viency to  another  and  a  better,  and  instead  of  giving  it 
the  preeminence,  makes  such  a  use  of  it  as  that  it  becomes 
no  unimportant  auxiliary  to  higher  and  more  enduring 
interests.  It  is  impossible  for  the  Christian  character  to 
take  a  high  tone  of  steadfastness,  or  consistency,  unless  it 
be  "  adjusted  by  the  claims  of  eternity."  Without  such 
an  adjustment,  there  is  no  Christian  that  will  not  be 
brought  under  the  tyranny  of  his  spiritual  enemies.  In- 
ferior motives  may  deter  him  from  occasional  sin,  and 
from  open  and  scandalous  sins ;  but  they  will  not  restrain 
him  from  sins  that  are  less  odious  in  the  sight  of  the 


312         THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS. 

world,  and  sins  that  are  secret ;  much  less  will  they  in- 
duce him  to  "  abstain  from  the  appearance  of  evil,"  and 
put  him  beyond  that  state  of  constant  alarm  lest  the 
warring  elements  within  his  bosom  break  out,  and  the 
"  sin  that  dwelleth  in  him"  obtain  the  mastery  over  his 
outward  conduct.  And  if,  notwithstanding  his  inward 
conflicts,  he  is  progressively  the  conqueror,  it  is  tluough 
"  the  power  of  an  endless  life."  As  he  goes  on  his  way, 
it  is  with  a  strength  and  vividness  of  spiritual  affection 
sustained  only  by  things  unseen.  His  love  becomes  more 
ardent  and  uniform,  his  repentance  more  genuine  and 
deep,  and  his  faith  more  animated  and  strong,  because 
''  he  endures  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible."  His  hopes 
are  more  triumphant,  and  his  piety  more  exemplary, 
because  he  "  walks  with  God."  He  has  a  deep  and 
cherished  sympathy  with  all  that  is  meek,  humble  and 
lovely ;  all  that  is  pure  and  true ;  all  that  is  honorable 
and  of  good  report.  There  is  a  tone  of  moral  feeling,  a 
cast  of  character,  a  caution  and  a  frankness,  a  loveliness 
and  a  loftiness,  which  find  their  aliment  only  in  the 
contemplation  of  what  is  unearthly.  It  was  this  that 
made  the  early  Christians  what  they  were — holy  men, 
true  men,  men  of  prayer,  men  of  God,  men  of  whom 
the  "  world  was  not  worthy."  His  course  is  upward  ;  as 
the  eagle  towers  toward  the  star  that  lights  this  lower 
world,  onward  he  goes  with  bolder  wing  and  strengthened 
vision.  Nor  is  it  until,  a  wanderer  from  the  Cross,  he  is 
stricken  by  some  envenomed  dart  of  the  fowler,  that  he 
flutters  and  falls  to  pine  amid  the  uncongenial  atmo- 
sphere of  earth. 

Not  less  obvious  is  it,  that  the  power  of  things  unseen, 
as  experienced  at  his  Cross,  is  felt  in  imparting  religious 
enjoyment.  It  has  already  been  remarked  that  the  views 
of  eternal  realities,  of  which  we  are  speaking,  are,  in 


i 


THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS.  3^3 

their  own  nature,  joyous  contemplations.  If  this  be  true, 
it  would  seem  that  the  joys  of  piety  are  always  augmented 
by  them,  and  just  in  the  proportion  in  which  those  scenes 
which  are  peculiarly  the  objects  of  faith  are  present  to 
the  mind,  and  become  the  absorbing  themes  of  thought. 
Most  men  find  their  enjoyment  in  their  own  will  and 
pleasure.  This  is  the  character  of  a  world  that  lieth  in 
wickedness.  But  those  there  are,  who  look  for  their 
satisfaction  rather  to  that  state  of  mind,  and  those  spheres 
of  action,  in  which  they  are  most  dead  to  things  seen  and 
temporal,  and  to  things  unseen  and  eternal  most  alive. 
"With  them  it  is  a  settled  point,  that  the  only  happiness 
worth  seeking  consists  in  the  enjoyment  of  those  great 
realities  which  lie  beyond  this  world,  and  which  are  so 
well  fitted  to  induce  that  life  of  faith  and  those  habits  of 
obedience  in  which  they  walk  in  the  "  light  of  God's 
countenance."  This  is  the  only  prescription  for  a  health- 
ful and  happy  mind  which  the  great  Physician  has  given 
to  our  diseased  and  unhappy  race.  "  To  be  carnally 
minded  is  death  ;  but  to  be  spiritually  minded  is  life  and 
peace.^'  The  only  way  of  contemplating  the  things  that 
are  not  seen  with  complacency  and  delight,  is  to  dwell 
upon  them.  The  men  of  the  world  well  understand  this 
philosophy.  The  miser  does  when  he  counts  his  gold ; 
the  voluptuary  does  when  his  polluted  imagination  dwells 
upon  his  pleasures ;  and  so  does  the  man  who  pants  for 
fame,  office  and  power.  The  Christian  understands  it 
when  he  looks  at  the  Cross,  and  there  dwells  upon  things 
unseen.  "  Whom  having  not  seen  we  love,"  saith  the 
Apostle  Peter,  "  in  whom,  though  now  we  see  him  not, 
yet  believing,  we  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of 
glory.^'  They  are  apt  to  be  abiding  joys,  and  to  partake 
more  and  more  of  the  strength  and  permanency  of  that 
eternity  by  the  contemplation  of  which  they  are  en- 
14 


314         THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS. 

kindled.  There  is  a  saciedness  and  grandeur  in  such 
objects  of  thought,  and  there  is  a  beauty  and  loveliness 
in  them,  and  there  is  a  power  and  energy  in  them  to 
excite  and  sustain  ardent  and  impassioned  emotions.  One 
reason  why  our  religious  emotions  are  so  languid  and 
cheerless,  why  our  harps  are  so  often  hung  upon  the 
willows,  and  under  the  mere  twilight  of  spiritual  joy,  is, 
that  we  keep  at  such  a  distance  from  the  Cross,  and  the 
realities  of  eternity  are  kept  at  such  a  distance  and  for- 
gotten. In  such  a  state  of  mind,  our  sky  is  dark  and 
heavy ;  the  evidences  of  our  interest  in  the  divine  favor 
are  obscured ;  power  is  given  to  our  invisible  enemies ; 
and  we  are  left  either  to  the  experience  of  painful  and 
morbid  dejection,  or  to  a  presumption  still  more  unholy 
and  dangerous.  Men  there  are,  who  "  have  just  enough 
religion  to  spoil  the  world,  but  not  enough  to  draw  com- 
fort from  God."  The  best  part,  even  of  the  present  life, 
escapes  such  a  man.  His  path  through  the  world  is 
through  a  desert  that  has  no  outlet.  He  does  not  see 
the  cool,  green  shade  that  lies  beyond  it,  nor  the  clear 
streams  that  environ  it.  Even  the  flowers  and  fruits  that 
bloom  or  ripen  upon  its  surface,  are  blighted  and  turned 
to  rottenness  and  ashes,  like  the  fruit  that  grows  upon 
the  borders  of  the  Dead  Sea.  It  is  the  reproach  of  re- 
ligion that  so  many  of  its  professors  walk  in  darkness  and 
see  no  light.  The  Saviour  said  to  his  disciples,  "  He 
that  followeth  after  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but 
shall  have  the  light  of  life."  That  inward  sadness  of 
spirit,  too  often  mistaken  for  piety,  which  discolors  every- 
thing around  us,  despoils  it  of  its  charms,  and  spreads 
over  the  future  a  perspective  of  dark  melancholy,  has 
no  sympathy  with  that  "  righteousness,  and  peace,  and 
joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost, '^^  which  constitute  the  kingdom  of 
God  within  the  soul.     If  our  minds  are  dark  and  joyless, 


THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS.         315 

we  must  look  for  light  and  joy  to  things  that  have  no 
place  within  this  lower  creation.  The  sources  of  light 
are  not  within  us,  but  without  us ;  they  are  not  around 
us,  but  above  us.  Nature  herself  teaches  us  this.  This 
low  world  is  illumined  by  suns,  and  moons,  and  stars 
beyond  it.  Light  comes  from  above.  It  is  so  widely  dif- 
fused, indeed,  that  we  are  often  satisfied  with  its  reflected 
ray«,  and  do  not  look  upward  to  its  source.  The  green 
upon  the  leaves,  and  the  golden  tint  upon  the  flowers, 
seem  inherent  in  the  leaf  and  flower.  But  when  a  veil 
is  cast  over  the  heavens,  we  look  in  vain  for  the  bright 
hues  which  seemed  to  sparkle  from  every  object  around 
us.  All  is  dark  and  cheerless,  and  we  wait  in  anxious 
expectation  until  the  cloud  shall  pass  away.  The  moral 
light,  also,  which  beams  upon  the  soul,  is  but  the  reflex 
light  of  heaven.  If  we  would  see  it  in  its  purity,  we 
must  look  upward.  The  early  Christians  were  joyful 
for  the  very  reason  that  eternity  was  so  real,  so  glorious, 
so  near.  And,  therefere,  they  were  not  only  comforted, 
but  the  comforters  of  millions.  They  were  serene  and 
peaceful,  where  we  should  be  agitated  and  perplexed ; 
triumphant,  where  we  should  be  cast  down.  Their  dark- 
ness was  turned  into  day,  their  mourning  into  rejoicing, 
their  sighs  into  praise.  What  the  contemplation  of 
invisible  and  eternal  realities  did  for  them,  it  can  do  for 
all.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for- 
ever. It  was  of  these  things  that  he  had  been  speaking, 
when  he  said  to  them,  what  he  still  says  to  all  who  love 
him,  "  These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that  my 
joy  might  remain  in  you,  and  that  your  joy  might  he 
fully 

We  may  advert  to  the  influence  of  the  Cross,  in  the 
view  in  which  we  are  now  contemplating  it,  on  the  trials 
and  afflictions  of  the  Christian  in  the  present  world.    There 


316         THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS. 

is  no  respite  from  trials  this  side  the  grave.  Waves  of 
sadness  sometimes  roll  over  the  soul  like  a  mighty  ocean. 
Of  this  great  community  of  griefs  every  Christian  man 
forms  a  part.  No  piety,  any  more  than  any  natural  or 
acquired  superiority  of  mind,  can  countervail  them.  Just 
as  the  strongest  minds  are  sometimes  the  most  miserable, 
so  are  the  most  heavenly  minds  sometimes  subjected  to 
the  heaviest  calamity.  Tears  are  not  less  bitter  to  the 
child  of  God  than  to  the  man  of  the  world ;  nor  are 
mortifications  less  humbling,  nor  pains  less  severe.  It  is 
in  vain  to  hope  that  sadness  will  not  mingle  with  his 
joys,  and  that  the  pensive  murmur  of  grief,  which  it  is 
impossible  to  stifle,  will  not  escape  him.  Chose  to 
whom  human  life  has  been  thus  far  summer  and  sun- 
shine, will  find  that  cold  frosts,  if  they  have  not  nipped 
the  blossoms  of  Spring,  will  blight  the  fruits  of  Autumn. 
These  earthly  hopes  which  now  smooth  their  way  through 
the  dark  wilderness  of  time,  will  ere  long  flit  away  like 
morning  dreams.  Men  cannot  become  transformed  into 
senseless  statues  ;  nor  can  any  earthly  expedients  disarm 
affliction  of  its  power.  Native  fortitude,  and  self-wrought 
calmness  and  resignation,  are  of  little  account.  They 
may  try  to  satisfy  themselves  that  it  is  idle  to  grieve  at 
what  is  inevitable,  and  they  may  affect  or  assume  sto- 
icism, while  their  hearts  are  bleeding.  They  may  try  to 
drown  trouble  in  pleasure  and  care,  and  amid  the  tumult 
of  earth  endeavor  to  forget  what  cannot  be  forgotten. 
But  it  is  a  poor  relief  from  sorrow  to  fly  to  the  distraction 
of  the  world.  As  well  might  a  lost  and  wearied  bird,  sus- 
pended over  the  abyss  of  the  tempestuous  ocean,  seek  a 
resting-place  on  its  topmost  waves,  as  the  child  of  sorrow 
seek  a  place  of  repose  amid  the  bustling  cares  and  intox- 
icating pleasures  of  earth  and  time.  But  what  the  things 
of  time  cannot  accomplish,  can  be  accomplished  by  the 


THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS.         317 

realities  of  eternity.  Though  they  secure  no  exemption 
from  trials,  they  arm  the  soul  with  power  to  meet  and 
endure  them.  They  reveal  the  moral  causes  which  pro- 
duce them  ;  they  discover  the  paternal  love  which  dis- 
penses and  directs  them  as  acts  of  needful  discipline ; 
they  bring  with  them  grace  to  help  and  to  comfort  in  the 
time  of  need;  they  give  the  assurance  that  "all  things 
work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God  ;"  and 
they  promise  the  happiest  issue  to  them  all.  You  have 
read  of  those  who  were  "  troubled  on  every  side,  but  not 
distressed  ;  perplexed,  but  not  in  despair ;  persecuted, 
but  not  forsaken  ;  cast  down,  but  not  destroyed."  Their 
reasoning  is  as  cogent  as  it  is  spiritual,  and  comes  home 
to  every  Christian  bosom:  "  For  which  cause  we  faint 
not ;  but  though  our  outward  man  perish,  yet  the  inward 
man  is  renewed  day  by  day.  For  our  light  affliction, 
which  is  but  for  a  moment,  worketh  for  us  a  far  more 
exceedmg  and  eternal  weight  of  glory ;  while  we  look 
not  at  the  things  that  are  seen,  but  at  the  things  that  are 
not  seen;  for  the  things  that  are  seen  are  temporal,  hut  the 
things  that  are  not  seen  are  eternal.'^  The  life  and  death 
of  these  noble  men  were  a  fitting  exposition  of  such  views. 
Poor  as  they  were,  they  made  many  rich ;  afflicted  as 
they  were,  they  gloried  in  tribulation  ;  dying  as  they  did, 
their  "  life  was  hid  with  Christ  in  God."  Oh,  how  eter- 
nal things  light  up  the  night  of  adversity  !  how  they  pour 
their  bright  rays  tlnough  the  gratings  of  this  dungeon 
world !  how  they  throw  beauty  over  the  azure  sky  !  how 
they  make  its  dark  clouds  thin  and  transparent,  when 
once  we  can  look  through  them  to  the  clear,  blue 
heavens !  These  "  light  afflictions  "  cannot  endure  long; 
they  are  "  but  for  a  moment."  These  swelling  seas, 
these  fierce  winds  and  dark  tempests,  do  but  waft  the 
immortal  spirit  over  the  sea  of  time.     The  child  of  sor- 


318    THE  WORLD  CRUCIFIED  BY  THE  CROSS. 

row  looks  to  the  hour  when  "  the  clays  of  his  mourning 
shall  be  ended."  The  prisoner  longs  for  the  light  of 
day ;  he  pines  for  the  hour  which  will  set  him  at  liberty; 
he  makes  welcome  the  stern,  grim  jailor  that  unbars  his 
prison.  Fearful  thought  were  it,  not  to  be  able  to  look 
beyond  the  grave  !  Dire  shipwreck  of  human  hopes,  but 
for  the  hope  of  heaven  realized  at  the  Cross !  It  is 
the  balm  of  life — the  spiritual  talisman  that  charms  its 
griefs.  Like  the  look  of  the  wounded  Israelite  to  the 
brazen  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  it  heals  his  anguish.  It 
is  the  great  catholicon  for  human  woes.  Like  the  heav- 
enly form  which  ministered  to  the  suffering  Saviour  in 
the  garden,  it  points  to  the  opening  heavens  while  it  pre- 
sents the  bitter  cup.  In  the  severest  trial,  and  the  bitterest 
agony,  eternal  things  become  the  most  precious  ;  for  it  is 
then  they  become  the  most  near,  until,  ceasing  to  be  unseen 
and  future,  they  open  to  the  ravished  spirit,  thus  progres- 
sively detached  from  earth  and  matured  for  heaven,  that 
new  world  where  faith  is  vision,  and  hope  eternal  joy. 

There  is  a  single  thought  more.  These  views  of 
the  coming  world,  instituted  at  the  Cross,  impart  to  the 
Christian  character  its  true  energy  and  usefulness.  There 
is  a  vast,  an  indefinable  chasm  in  that  man's  life  who 
lives  merely  under  the  influence  of  time.  It  is  the  means 
and  not  the  end  which  occupies  him  ;  the  voyage,  and  not 
the  distant  country.  The  world  lies  before  him  an  un- 
certain, fluctuating  ocean,  upon  which  he  is  to  sail  a  few 
restless  years  ;  but  he  looks  to  no  haven.  All  is  a  bubble 
which  he  is  seeking,  that  does  not  terminate  in  eternity. 
The  difference  which  exists  between  the  sober  and 
earnest  pursuits  of  men  and  the  sports  of  children — their 
toys,  their  houses  of  cards,  and  their  mimic  castles — 
offers  but  a  feeble  analogy  to  the  disproportion  between 
those  pursuits  which  relate  to  time,  and  those  which  have 


THE  WORLD  CRUCIFIED  BY  THE  CROSS.    319 

eternity  for  their  object.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that, 
in  the  pursuits  of  this  world,  the  passions  of  men,  their 
fickleness  and  caprice,  so  often  thwart  their  best-laid 
plans,  and  that  so  many  of  their  wisest  projects  are  foiled 
by  irresolution  and  want  of  energy.  What  earthly  af- 
fections are  there  that  do  not  sink  into  insignificance 
before  the  contemplation  of  the  vast  interests  of  an  exist, 
ence  that  can  never  end  1  When  that  distinguished  man, 
William  Wilberforce,  was  requested  by  an  intimate  friend 
to  furnish  her  with  a  single  sentence  in  her  album  which 
might  serve  as  the  motto  of  her  life,  he  took  his  pen  and 
wrote,  "  None  of  us  liveth  to  himself,  and  none  of  us 
dieth  to  himself;  but  whether  we  live,  we  live  unto  the 
Lord,  or  whether  we  die,  we  die  unto  the  Lord ;  so  that 
whether  we  live,  or  die,  we  are  the  Lord's."  There  are 
Christians  who  accomplish  more  for  the  cause  of  Christ, 
and  the  spiritual  and  everlasting  good  of  their  fellow-men, 
within  the  compass  of  a  few  short  years,  than  others  ac- 
complish in  a  long  life.  The  cause  of  the  difference  is, 
the  difference  in  their  views  and  thoughts  of  invisible  and 
eternal  realities.  The  latter  class  move  within  a  narrow 
sphere,  and  under  scarcely  any  perceptible  influence 
derived  from  the  unseen  world ;  while  the  former  go  for- 
ward under  the  weight  of  truths  which  eternity  alone  can 
fully  appreciate,  and  to  occupy  a  sphere  wide  as  the 
demands  of  a  world  that  lieth  in  wickedness.  Eternal 
things  constitute  the  great  principle  and  incitement  to 
unwearied  well-doing.  They  effect  a  revolution  in  the 
mind,  and  are  destined  to  effect  a  revolution  in  the  world. 
They  run  not  in  a  single  channel  only,  but  immingle 
with  all  the  streams  that  make  glad  the  City  of  our 
God. 

It  is  when  the  thousands  who  are  around  us,  and  the 
millions  on  whom  our  influence  may  be  indirectly  exerted, 


320         THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS. 

are  seen  to  be  born  for  immortality,  and  destined  to  have 
a  dwelling  on  one  or  the  other  of  the  outstretched  con- 
tinents which  mortal  eyes  do  not  behold,  that  the  energy 
of  those  motives  is  felt  which  bring-  out  and  develop  the 
power  of  true  religion.  Objects  and  ends  everywhere 
multiply,  then,  that  are  worthy  of  toil,  worthy  of  sacri- 
fices that  seek  no  indemnity  save  in  the  benevolence  they 
express  and  gratify,  and  in  the  approbation  of  the  great 
Witness  and  Judge.  You  never  heard  a  spiritual  and 
heavenly-minded  man  "  complain  of  checks  or  inter- 
ruptions to  toil  arising  from  his  strongest  impressions  of 
things  that  are  eternal."  On  the  other  hand,  no  difficul- 
ties discourage,  no  sloth  ensnares,  the  man  who  looks  not 
on  the  things  that  are  seen.  His  powers  of  body  and 
mind,  his  time,  his  influence,  his  property,  which,  when 
compared  with  the  things  of  time,  he  husbands  or  with- 
holds, in  view  of  eternity  seem  as  dust  in  the  balance. 
He  gives  them  freely  ;  his  only  regret  is  that  the  offering 
is  so  poor  and  feeble.  Had  he  crowns  or  kingdoms,  or 
centuries  instead  of  years,  he  would  value  them  only  to 
be  consecrated  to  God.  His  benevolence  is  not  a  spirit 
that  is  inflated  by  the  contemplation  of  its  own  imaginary 
excellence,  and  which  finds  its  highest  incitement  in  self- 
applause,  or  in  the  applause  of  his  fellow-men  ;  rather 
does  it  seek  concealment  from  the  public  eye ;  k  is  un- 
ostentatious and  noiseless,  and  suffers  no  diminution  when 
every  earthly  consideration  is  withdrawn.  What  will  be 
seen  to  be  most  important  when  earthly  things  pass 
away,  a  due  estimate  of  eternal  realities  regards  as 
important  now.  The  visible  becomes,  as  it  were,  in- 
visible, just  in  the  proportion  in  which  the  invisible 
becomes  visible ;  while  in  the  same  proportion  in  which 
the  future  becomes  present,  the  present  becomes  like  the 
forgotten  past. 


THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS.         321 

Would  that  the  mind,  both  of  the  reader  and  the  writer, 
were  more  deeply  imbued  with  these  things !  That  man 
has  not  a  little  to  learn  of  the  "  sin  that  dwelleth  in 
him,"  who  has  not  yet  learned  that  the  things  of  earth 
are  a  snare  to  the  soul.  All  the  tendencies  of  a  nature 
so  partially  sanctified,  are  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  ques- 
tion, when  the  question  is,  this  world,  or  the  world  to 
come.  Oh,  it  is  melancholy  proof  that  our  race  is  "  ex- 
iled from  heaven,"  that  even  good  men  find  it  so  haz- 
ardous to  come  in  contact  with  earth,  and  that,  in  so 
doing,  so  many  are  cast  down  and  degraded  below  their 
high  destiny  !  Supreme  in  the  hearts  of  wicked  men, 
this  love  of  earth  is  never  wholly  eradicated  from  the 
hearts  even  of  the  children  of  God.  If  you  would  have  it 
more  and  more  subdued,  and  brought  into  subjection  to 
better  hopes  and  principles,  let  it  become  more  and  more 
the  confirmed  habit  of  your  minds  to  live  near  to  the 
Cross,  and  there  contemplate  the  things  that  are  not  seen. 
The  dominion  of  earth  and  time  is  broken,  only  by  estab- 
lishing within  the  soul  the  empire  of  the  Cross: — the 
empire  of  heaven  and  eternity.  "  Set  your  affections, 
therefore,  not  on  things  that  are  on  the  earth,  but  on  things 
that  are  above,  where  Jesus  Christ  sitteth  at  the  right 
hand  of  God."  Rest  not  initil  you  are  enabled  to  look 
more  within  the  veil ;  and  fix  your  hearts  more  steadfastly 
on  the  only  permanent  realities  in  the  universe.  Retire 
within  the  chambers  of  your  own  mind,  and  there  con- 
template them  in  those  hours  of  secret  and  solemn  thought, 
where  the  unseen  One  so  often  speaks  to  the  soul.  Go 
to  God's  word,  and  you  will  find  them  there,  in  new  and 
endless  combinations,  and  the  more  you  inspect  their 
beauty  and  explore  their  fullness,  the  more  will  you  per- 
ceive their  ten  thousand  rays  of  light,  all  shooting  upward, 
and  guiding  you  to  immortality.  When  you  go  to  the 
14* 


322    THE  WORLD  CRUCIFIED  BY  THE  CROSS. 

throne  of  grace,  too,  you  will  find  them  there,  where  yon 
may  have  sensible  intercourse  with  the  Father  of  lights, 
and  where,  instead  of  becoming  secularized  with  the 
world,  you  may  breathe  the  atmosphere  of  heaven.  In 
the  sanctuary  of  God  you  have  been  wont  to  find  them 
in  all  its  instructions,  all  its  prayers,  and  all  its  praise. 
But  above  all,  and  first  of  all,  if  you  would  behold  them 
as  they  are  revealed  to  men  who  are  benighted  and  apos- 
tate, seek  them  at  the  Cross  of  Christ.  Look,  and  learn 
of  eternal  things  that  which  can  be  seen  and  learned  only 
there.  "  I  came  forth  from  the  Father,"  said  that  cru- 
cified One,  "  and  am  come  into  the  world  :  again  I  leave 
the  world,  and  go  to  the  Father."  There  is  "  God  mani- 
fest in  the  flesh ;"  there  is  heaven  come  down  to  earth  ; 
there  is  eternity  in  time.  And  there  may  mortal,  sinning 
man  behold  eternal  things  as  reflected  from  a  mirror ; 
and  there,  beholding  them,  be  himself  "  changed  into 
the  same  image,  from  glory  to  glory,  even  as  by  the  spirit 
of  the  Lord." 

Ye  sons  of  earth  and  time,  too,  what  think  ye  of  these 
attractions  of  the  Cross?  Why  should  ye  banish  from 
your  thoughts  those  living  and  permanent  realities  of 
which  you  yourselves  will  so  soon  form  a  part  1  It  were 
enough  to  rebuke,  and  diminish,  and  put  to  shame  this 
absorbing  love  of  earth,  that  it  urges  its  claims  from  no 
good  end,  and  allures  that  it  may  destroy.  It  were  the 
worst  of  deaths  to  be  dead  to  the  worthy,  and  alive  to 
the  worthless ;  alive  only  to  time,  and  dead  to  eternity. 
Forget  not,  I  beseech  you,  that  you  are  on  the  race-course 
for  an  immortal  crown ;  and  if  the  world  bowls  its  golden 
fruit  across  your  path,  stop  not  to  gather  its  glittering 
spoil.  There  is  no  annihilation  beyond  the  grave — there 
is  no  end  to  eternity ;  yet  are  you  hastening  toward  it 
as  the  eagle  hasteth  to  her  prey.     Man  lives  in  the  con- 


THE    WORLD    CRUCIFIED    BY    THE    CROSS.         323 

tinual  certainty  that  he  must  die.  He  cannot  forget  it ; 
he  cannot  banish  it ;  he  cannot  take  a  step  but  death 
meets  him  ;  he  sees  him  draw  nigh  with  sure  approach. 
We  are  content  to  learn  many  things  in  the  present  world 
from  experience ;  but  it  is  hazardous  to  wait  for  the  expe- 
rience of  eternity.  "  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap."  Lost  opportunity  cannot  be  redeemed 
there.  Abused  Sabbaths  will  not  there  return.  A  re- 
jected Saviour  will  not  there  be  offered.  An  aggrieved 
Spirit  will  not  there  seek  to  win  the  soul  to  repentance. 
Esau  "  found  no  place  for  repentance,  though  he  sought 
it  carefully  and  with  tears."  Many  is  the  man  who  has 
uttered  the  mournful  thought,  too  late  for  the  loss  to  be 
repaired,  "  Oh,  how  have  I  hated  instruction  and  despised 
reproof!"  The  well-known  exclamation  of  Titus  is  an 
affecting  tribute  of  the  regret  of  an  amiable  mind  over 
lost  opportunity.  The  Roman  Prince  had  hopes  of  the 
morrow  before  him — hopes  of  making  good  his  loss. 
But  in  what  tones  will  they  utter  it  to  whom  no  morrow 
remains!  What  a  fearful  exclamation,  then,  "  Perdidi 
diem  !" — vitam  perdidi !  The  die  is  cast;  the  day  of  life 
is  over  and  eternity  begun  !  A  lost  day,  a  lost  opportunity, 
a  lost  year,  a  lost  life,  a  lost  soul,  where  "-  there  is  no 
work,  nor  knowledge,  nor  device  " — how  imperious  the 
call  to  "  live  well  and  live  for  eternity  ;"  to  ''  work  while 
it  is  day,  because  the  night  cometh  in  which  no  man  can 
work  !"  Behold,  now  is  the  accepted  time  ;  behold,  now 
is  the  day  of  salvation  !  Defer  not,  till  the  bitter  lamen- 
tation shall  be  wrung  from  your  bosoms,  "  The  harvest 
is  past,  the  summer  is  ended,  and  I  am  not  saved !" 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

ALL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO   THE     CROSS. 

The  subject  on  which  we  propose  to  submit  a  few 
thoughts  in  the  present  chapter,  is  one  which  is  intimately 
connected  with  the  great  principles  of  Christian  doctrine 
and  practice.  It  is,  the  subserviency  of  all  things  to  the  Cross 
of  Christ.  I  say,  the  subserviency  oi  all  things;  and  by 
this  I  mean  to  express  the  thought  which  the  words  liter- 
ally convey.  There  is  nothing  within  the  compass  of  the 
created  universe,  which  is  not  directly  or  indirectly,  vol- 
untarily or  by  coercion,  made  tributary  to  the  great  work 
of  Christ.  He  is  the  master-spirit  of  the  whole — the  all- 
presiding  Deity.  "As  in  great  maps  or  pictures  you  will 
see  the  border  decorated  with  meadows,  fountains  and 
flowers  represented  on  it,  but  in  the  middle  you  have  the 
main  design — so  among  the  works  of  God  is  it  with  the 
fore-ordained  redemption  of  man.  All  his  other  works 
in  the  world — all  the  beauty  of  the  creatmes,  the  succes- 
sion of  ages,  and  the  things  that  come  to  pass  in  them,  are 
but  as  the  border  to  this  main  piece.  But  as  a  foolish  and 
unskillful  beholder,  not  discerning  the  excellency  of  the 
principal  piece  in  such  maps  or  pictures,  gazes  only  on 
the  fair  border,  and  goes  no  further — thus  do  the  greatest 
part  of  us  to  this  great  work  of  God,  the  redemption  of 
our  personal  being,  the  re-union  of  the  human  with  the 
divine,  by  and  through  the  Divine  Humanity  of  the 
Incarnate  Word." 


ALL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS.         325 

It  is  according  to  the  dictates  of  divine  wisdom  to  give 
preeminence  to  some  one  design.    The  ways  of  God  often 
appear  complicated  and  embarrassed,  because  they  are 
so  many,  because  they  are  comprised  in  so  many  different 
departments,  and  because,  to  superficial  observers,   the 
great  end  and  object  of  them  is  overlooked.     Not  a  few 
of  them  are  inscrutable,  and  men  are   confounded  by 
them.     They  are  like  the  Prophet's  vision  of  the  cheru- 
bim :  "  as  if  a  wheel  had  been  in  the  midst  of  a  wheel ; 
as  for  their  wings,  they  are  so  high  that  they  are  dread- 
ful."    The  unity  of  the  divine  government  results  from 
the  unity  of  its  design.     The  Prophet  saw  in  his  vision 
of  the  cherubim,  that,  while  they  looked  different  ways, 
"every  one  went  straight  forward;  whither  the  spirit 
was  to  go  they  went,  and  they  turned  not  when  they 
went."     Various  and  apparently  complicated  as  are  the 
works  of  God,  they  are  not  wrought  at  random.     There 
is  no  sameness ;  no  two  lines  of  them  are  perfectly  par- 
allel;  while  amid  all  this    inconceivably   rich   variety, 
they  have  one  great  object,  and  are  all  one  in  design. 
There  is  nothing  incongruous,  nothing  exuberant ;  and 
such  is  their  adjustment  to  each  other,  and  to  the  great 
end  they  aim  at,  that  we  cannot  fail  to  see  that  they  all 
originate  in  infinite  wisdom,  and  that   "  the  spirit  of  the 
living  creature  is  in  the  wheels."    The  wisdom  of  God  is 
that  attribute  by  which  he  forms  the  best  designs,  and  the 
best  means  of  carrying  them  into  execution.     It  would 
naturally  give  preeminence  to  some  one  great  design 
above  another,  unless  all  his  designs  were  of  equal  import- 
ance, and  no  one  was  actually  to  be  preferred  to  another. 
All  his  designs  are  important  in  their  place,  and  none  of 
them  can  be  dispensed  with  ;  but  we  see,  in  fact,  that  they 
are  not  all  equally  important.     His  purpose   to  create  a 
pebble  was  not  so  important  as  his  purpose  to  create  an 


326         ^LL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS. 

intellectual,  moral  being,  and  one  born  for  immortality. 
It  is  tberefore  in  accordance  witb  the  divine  wisdom  to 
give  preeminence  to  some  one  great  design  above  an- 
other, and  above  all  others.  His  goodness,  his  wisdom, 
his  power,  his  high  regard  for  himself,  and  his  own 
honor,  are  the  best  pledge  that,  in  laying  out  his  plans,  he 
has  given  the  most  important  the  first  and  highest  place. 
Now  the  loork  of  redemptioii  is  God's  most  important 
vjork,  and,  in  itself,  worthy  to  he  subserved  by  everything 
that  he  has  made.  It  is  a  design  which  was  very  early 
formed,  and,  in  all  its  parts  and  comprehensiveness,  was 
spread  out  in  his  own  mind  before"  the  foundation  of  the 
Avorld.  He  did  not  form  it  for  any  other  reasons  than 
those  which  existed  within  his  own  bosom.  Though  we 
may  not  limit  the  divine  wisdom,  we  do  not  see  that  it 
derogates  from  it  to  say,  that  the  method  of  redemption 
by  his  Son  is  his  greatest  and  best  work.  He  himself 
declares  that  principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly  places 
discover  in  it  the  "manifold  wisdom  of  God."  Other 
designs  he  has  formed,  and  other  works  he  has  wrought, 
which  are  "very  good,"  and  worthy  of  their  author  ;  but 
none  of  them  can  be  compared  with  this.  For  these  six 
thousand  years,  has  it  been  the  object  of  thought  and  in- 
spection ;  the  purest  and  most  exalted  minds  in  the 
universe  have  been  looking  into  it;  and  the  more  they 
have  done  so,  the  more  has  it  excited  their  admiration, 
and  drawn  forth  their  ascriptions  of  praise.  God  him- 
self has  not  seen  fit  to  alter  or  modify  it,  because  he  has 
never  discovered  in  it  the  least  defect  or  imperfection.  It 
is  great  a.nd  important  enough  to  be  his  leading  purpose, 
and  to  lie  at  the  foundation  of  all  his  purposes.  It  con- 
tains ineffably  "  wondrous  things."  There  is  no  other 
work  of  God  so  good,  so  great,  so  all-comprehensive,  as 
this.     It  comprises  more  of  God  himself  than  any  other 


ALL    TIILNGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS.         327 

of  the  productions  of  his  infinite  mind.  It  is  the  ap- 
pointed means  and  medium  by  which  his  ineffable  great- 
ness and  goodness  are  manifested  before  all  worlds.  We 
wonder  and  adore,  and  cover  our  faces  at  the  view  it 
furnishes  of  the  infinite  and  ever-blessed  God.  The  more 
we  study  it,  the  more  do  we  see  that  it  is  full  of  God,  and 
that  its  great  object  and  aim  are  to  give  ''  glory  to  God  in 
the  highest."  Comprising,  as  it  does,  so  much  of  God 
himself,  it  necessarily  comprises  all  his  truth.  It  is  the 
great  witness  and  the  great  expression  of  all  religious 
truth';  and  its  lessons  stand  forth  before  the  universe  as 
the  most  complete,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  bril- 
liant and  enduring  system  of  belief  ever  revealed,  or  ever 
to  be  revealed  hereafter.  It  comprises  also  more  of  holi- 
ness than  is  comprised  in  any  other  work  of  the  great 
First  Cause.  To  men  it  is  the  only  means  of  holiness, 
and  reveals  the  only  agency  by  which  holiness  is  secured 
and  extended,  and  perpetuated  on  earth.  "It  hath 
pleased  the  Father  that  in  Him  should  all  fullness  dw^ell." 
The  influence  that  illuminates,  elevates  and  sanctifies 
the  human  mind  is  all  from  this  source.  Here  are  the 
wisdom  that  guides,  and  the  grace  that  sustains  ;  here 
are  the  kindlings  of  its  love,  the  meltings  of  its  penitence, 
the  vigor  of  its  faith,  the  energy  of  its  hope,  and  the 
strength  and  firmness  of  its  principles  and  rectitude.  The 
highest  orders  of  intelligence  in  the  universe  receive  new 
views  of  God  and  truth  through  Christ :  their  consequent 
knowledge  of  his  work,  and  subjection  to  his  authority, 
are  the  brightest  adornments  of  their  character.  And 
because  this  redemption  is  thus  preeminent  in  such  in- 
fluences, it  is  preeminent  in  securing  and  advancing  the 
happiness  of  the  holy  universe.  Whatever  comprises 
most  of  God,  of  truth,  of  rectitude,  by  an  unchanging 
law  of  the  divine  kingdom  comprises  most  of  happiness. 


328         ALL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS. 

For  this  fallen  world,  we  know  there  had  been  nothing 
but  the  wrath  and  curse  of  God — nothing  but  the  black- 
ness of  darkness — nothing  but  despair  and  wailing,  but 
for  the  Cross.  The  vast  aggregate  of  happiness  enjoyed 
by  the  unnumbered  millions  of  mankind,  through  all  the 
ages  of  time,  and  the  interminable  ages  of  the  future — a 
blessedness  greater  than  that  to  which  man  could  have 
aspired  in  his  primeval  integrity,  and  which  mimaculate 
innocence  merely  could  never  attain — has  its  origin  and 
aliment  only  in  Christ's  redemption.  Such  a  work  de- 
serves to  hold  the  highest  place,  and  make  everything 
tributary  to  its  claims  and  objects.  It  is  a  most  wonder- 
ful work.  Travel  through  all  the  works  of  God,  and,  if 
it  were  possible,  travel  through  all  eternity,  and  you  will 
find  no  such  work  of  God  as  this  mystery  of  man's 
redemption.  To  make  this  great  work  subordinate  to 
any  other,  were  to  make  the  greater  subservient  to  the 
less — were  to  make  the  sun  eclipsed  by  the  morning  star. 
In  addition  to  this,  it  should  also  be  remarked,  that  the 
Saviour  himself,  the  great  Author  and  Finisher  of  this 
redemption,  deserves  the  high  honor  of  making  everything 
subservient  to  the  great  work  which,  at  so  much  sacrifice, 
he  has  undertaken  to  perform.  This  thought  commends 
itself  to  every  mind  to  whom  the  Saviour  is  precious.  He 
deserves  this  high  honor  from  his  character  as  "  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh ;"  as  "  Immanuel,  God  with  us." 
Correct  views  of  his  personal  glory  are  essential  to  all 
right  apprehensions  of  his  ofiicial  character  and  claims  as 
the  great  Mediator.  It  is  as  the  God-man  that  he  is  the 
Author  and  Finisher  of  the  work  of  redemption,  and  it 
is  in  this  character  that  he  deserves  the  prerogative  of 
presiding  over  and  directing  all  things  with  a  view  to 
that  spiritual  kingdom  for  which  he  laid  down  his  life. 
His  condescension,  sacrifices  and  sorrows,  invest  him  with 


ALL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS.         329 

the  rig^ht  and  title  to  all  things  as  the  Sovereign  of  a  holy 
and  happy  kingdom.  He  stood  pledged  to  this  great 
work,  cost  him  what  it  might,  and  he  met  the  exigencies 
of  it  as  they  arose,  with  a  firmness,  a  zeal  and  ardor,  a 
constancy  and  self-devotement,  that  remained  unabated 
and  unrelaxed,  until  he  "  poured  out  his  soul  unto 
death."  And  for  this  wondrous  service,  God  engaged  to 
give  him  the  crown  which  he  so  dearly  purchased.  When 
the  service  was  completed,  he  actually  awarded  it  to 
him  ;  expressly  "  appointed  him  the  heir  of  all  things ;^^ 
"  set  him  at  his  own  right  hand  in  the  heavenly  places, 
far  above  all  princijjality  and  power,  and  might  and  do- 
minion, not  only  in  this  world,  but  also  in  that  which  is 
to  come ;  and  put  all  things  under  his  feet,  and  gave  him 
to  be  Head  over  all  things  to  the  church.^''  He  obtained 
his  official  ascendancy  for  stipulated  services — services 
that  deserve  such  a  reward,  and  entitled  him  "i/i  all 
things  to  have  the  preeminence.^^  God  the  Father  distinctly 
recognizes  this  claim.  "  Who,  being  in  the  form  of  God, 
thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God  :  made  him- 
self of  no  reputation,  and  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a 
servant,  and  was  made  in  the  likeness  of  men  ;  and  being 
found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  humbled  himself,  and 
became  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  Cross. 
Wherefore  God  also  hath  highly  exalted  him,  and  given 
him  a  name  that  is  above  every  name ;  that  at  the  name 
of  Jesus,  every  knee  should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and 
things  in  the  earth,  and  things  wider  the  earth;  and  that 
every  tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to 
the  glory  of  God  the  Father."  This  deserved  preemi- 
nence of  Christ  can  scarcely  escape  the  notice  even  of 
the  most  cursory  reader  of  the  Bible.  "  All  things  are 
put  under  him,"  with  the  single  exception  of  "Him  who 
put  all  things  under  him."     This  is  the  glorious  exalta- 


330        ^LL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS. 

tion  which  he  now  enjoys,  and  the  delightful  subservi- 
ency of  all  things  to  him,  for  what  he  is,  and  for  what 
he  has  done  and  suffered  for  man's  redemption. 

To  this  it  may  be  added,  that  without  this  subserviency y 
it  would  be  impossible  that  the  work  of  redemption  could 
be  perfected.  This  work  itself  bears  such  a  relation  to 
every  part  of  the  divine  government,  and  wears  such  a 
diversified  aspect  toward  every  being,  every  occurrence, 
and  every  object  in  the  universe,  that  it  cannot  be  com- 
pleted, unless  Jesus  Christ  so  contols  them  all,  that 
each,  according  to  its  various  nature  and  fitness,  shall  be 
made  to  subserve  its  purposes.  The  whole  plan  was 
formed  with  a  view  to  this  universal  control,  and  cannot 
be  carried  into  effect  without  it.  The  Mediator  must 
have  recourse  to  this  authority,  or  the  objects  of  his  me- 
diation can  never  be  secured.  If  there  be  a  mind  in  the 
universe  he  does  not  govern,  an  event  he  does  not  over- 
rule, a  particle  of  matter  he  does  not  direct,  who  does  not 
see  that  he  has  no  security  that  that  mind,  that  event,  and 
that  particle  jof  matter,  might  fail  to  answer  the  ends  for 
which  it  was  created,  and  defeat  his  purposes  of  mercy  1 
If  it  is  necessary  that  anything  should  be  made  subservi- 
ent to  these  purposes,  it  is  necessary  that  all  things  should 
be  so.  If  it  is  necessary  that  all  things  as  a  whole,  and 
collectively,  be  thus  controlled,  it  is  necessary  that  every 
particular  thing  and  all  the  parts  be  thus  controlled. 
Joseph's  dream  was  as  truly  tributary  to  the  great  work 
of  redemption,  as  the  removal  of  Jacob  and  his  family 
into  Egypt.  The  personal  beauty  of  Esther  was  as  truly 
tributary  to  it,  as  the  deliverance  of  the  Jewish  nation 
from  a  general  massacre.  The  advancement  of  Nehe- 
miah  to  the  court  of  Artaxerxes  was  as  truly  tributary  to 
it,  as  the  restoration  of  the  visible  church  of  God  from 
its  captivity  in  Babylon.     Nor  would  it  be  possible  for 


ALL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS.         33 1 

this  redemption  to  be  brought  to  its  glorious  issues,  and 
all  the  glory  of  it  ascribed  to  its  great  Author,  unless  he 
is  above  all  that  which  may,  either  designedly  or  unde- 
signedly, oppose,  counteract  or  frustrate  it,  unless  in  some 
way  he  makes  everything  instrumental  in  accomplishing 
this  glorious  design. 

But  let  us  proceed  to  illustrate  this  position  hy  the  induc- 
tion of  several  particulars.  Where  shall  we  go  to  find  an 
exception  to  the  things  which  Christ  does  not  govern  and 
control  for  the  sake  of  his  church  1  In  what  world  is  that 
exception  to  be  found  1  what  height,  what  depth  does  it 
occupy  ?  in  what  creature  does  it  dwell  1 

Look  to  this  material  creation.  Whose  is  it  ?  and  for 
whom  and  for  what  was  it  called  into  being?  The 
redemption  by  Christ  Jesus  was  not  devised  for  the  earth 
we  dwell  in  ;  but  the  earth  we  occupy  was  planned  and 
called  into  being,  for  this  more  wonderful  redemption. 
The  Author  of  redemption  was  its  Author.  By  him  and 
for  him  it  was  formed ;  nor  would  it  ever  have  been  called 
into  existence,  but  to  be  the  theatre  of  his  redeeming 
mercy.  When  the  "  heavens  were  prepared,  and  a  com- 
pass was  set  upon  the  face  of  the  deep,  he  was  there, 
rejoicing  in  the  habitable  parts  of  the  earth,  and  his 
delights  were  with  the  sons  of  men."  The  world  of 
matter  was  formed  for  the  world  of  mind.  Matter  is  dead 
and  powerless,  and,  but  for  its  subserviency  to  higher  and 
nobler  interests,  were  a  useless  thing.  Its  true  import- 
ance and  value  are  learned  only  by  ascending  from  its 
gross  and  palpable  forms  to  those  causes  which  govern  it, 
and  those  ends  for  which  it  is  governed.  The  vast 
extent  of  this  material  creation,  its  wonderful  variety, 
its  majesty  and  beauty,  its  waters  and  its  solid  land,  its 
light  and  darkness,  its  suns  and  storms,  its  seasons  and 
its  fertility,  its  laws  and  its  revolutions,  so  much  the 


332         ALL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY'    TO    THE    CROSS. 

objects  of  our  admiration  and  wonder,  are  all  under  the 
control  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  sustained  by  him,  and  directed 
by  him,  and  all  its  wonderful  resources  are  employed  by 
him,  to  answer  the  purposes  of  his  redeemiug  wisdom 
and  love.  If  his  church  needs  it,  he  holds  back  the  flow- 
ing tide  of  its  rushing  waters,  that  she  may  pass  through 
on  dry  land.  If  the  interests  of  his  kingdom  require  it^ 
the  sun  stands  still  in  the  heavens,  while  the  enemies  of 
this  kingdom  are  slain.  Not  only  are  the  laws  by  which 
the  earth  turns  on  its  axis  arrested  at  his  will,  but  the 
shadow  goes  back  on  the  dial,  that  the  message  of  his 
prophet  may  be  fulfilled.  Rain  and  hail,  fire  and  vapor, 
fulfill  his  word.  Throughout  all  this  wide  dominion  of 
nature,  he  is  the  acknowledged  sovereign,  and  rules  in 
order  to  secure  and  advance  the  great  designs  of  grace. 
Suns  shine,  and  systems  revolve,  and  the  bounds  of  the 
people  are  fixed,  according  to  the  provisions  of  his  cove- 
nant of  peace.  He  hung  the  earth  upon  nothing,  that  it 
became  his  cradle.  He  stretched  out  the  heavens  that 
they  might  bear  witness  to  his  humiliations,  and  enjoy 
his  triumphs.  He  enriches  by  his  bounty  and  beautifies  all 
by  his  smiles,  and  makes  sublime  and  awful  by  his  power, 
all  his  manifold  works,  that  they  may  be  instrumental  in 
advancing  his  glory,  and  become  vocal  with  bis  praise. 
"  The  several  creatures  bear  tlieir  part  in  this;  the  sun 
says  somewhat,  and  the  moon  and  stars,  yea,  the  lowest 
have  some  share  in  it."  Infidels  have  more  tha  i  once 
impugned  the  scriptural  account  of  the  material  crea- 
tion, because  they  have  severed  it  from  that  greater  work 
which  unlocks  all  its  mysteries.  "  0  Lord  God,  how 
great  are  thy  works,  and  thy  thoughts  are  very  deep;  a 
brutish  man  knoweth  not,  neither  doth  a  fool  consider 
this."  Slow  of  heart  are  they  to  believe,  who,  with 
the  Bible  in  their  hands,  have  not  learned  that  every  page 


ALL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS.        333 

in  the  book  of  nature  repeats  some  lesson  from  the  Cross. 
From  the  dark  chaos  to  this  finished  and  beautiful  world, 
everything  was  originally  arranged  for  the  promotion  of 
this  great  design.  From  the  first  anthem  of  those  morn- 
ing stars  who  sang  together,  down  to  the  voice  of  the 
archangel  and  the  trump  of  God,  every  sound  in  the 
material  universe  is  in  unison  with  the  ascription,  "  Of 
him,  and  through  him,  and  to  him  are  all  things  !"  And 
when  his  great  work  is  finished,  and  all  his  redeemed  ones 
are  gathered  in,  then  shall  these  heavens  pass  away  with 
a  great  noise,  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat, 
and  the  earth  shall  be  burnt  up. 

From  the  material,  look  now  to  the  intellectual  creation, 
composed  as  it  is  of  the  unf alien  and  fallen  angels,  and  of 
good  and  bad  men.  Inspect  the  whole  of  it.  If  Jesus 
Christ  makes  this  world  of  matter  subserve  his  redemp- 
tion, much  more  does  he  thus  govern  and  overrule  the 
intellectual  beings  that  occupy  it.  Of  the  angels  that 
are  unfallen,  the  Word  of  God  furnishes  us  with  the  most 
explicit  information  relating  to  the  part  they  sustain  in 
carrying  forward  the  Saviour's  designs.  They  tell  us  of 
an  "innumerable  company  of  angels,"  of  "cherubim 
and  seraphim,"  of  "  thrones  and  dominions,"  of  "prin- 
cipalities and  powers  ;"  while  they  teach  us  that  these 
"things  in  heaven"  are  all  "gathered  together  in 
Christ,"  subject  to  jiis  dominion,  and  "swift  to  do  his 
will,  hearkening  to  the  voice  of  his  word."  At  his  bid- 
ding, they  come  down  to  this  world  on  errands  of  mercy, 
and  on  errands  of  judgment;  while  (hey  are  "  a// min- 
istering spirits  sent  forth  to  minister  to  them  that  shall 
be  heirs  of  salvation.''''  They  appeared  to  Abraham  on 
the  plains  of  Mamre ;  to  Lot  to  hasten  him  out  of  Sodom ; 
to  Isaiah  when  he  spake  of  His  glory  who  was  to  come; 
to  Zacharias,  to  Mary,  to   the  shepherds  of  Bethlehem, 


334         ^LL    THINGS    TKIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS. 

10  the  agonizing-  Saviour  in  the  garden.  They  were  the 
witnesses  of  his  resurrection ;  attended  him  in  his  triumph- 
ant departure  from  earth,  and  his  more  triumphant  en- 
trance into  heaven ;  and  at  his  second  coming  all  the 
holy  angels  shall  be  with  him  to  augment  his  splendor, 
and  fulfill  the  high  commands  of  his  throne.  Of  the 
angels  that  are  fallen  we  can  only  say  that  they  are  made 
subservient  to  the  work  of  redemption,  not  willingly,  but 
by  constraint.  In  every  house  there  are  vessels  of  honor 
and  vessels  of  dishonor.  The  kingdom  of  Christ  is 
erected  on  the  ruins  of  the  fall,  out  of  low  and  base 
materials  :  there  are  departments  of  it  which  must  be 
purified  and  cleansed  in  ways  in  which  none  but  fallen, 
filthy  spirits  can  be  employed.  To  give  them  the  oppor- 
tunity of  acting  out  their  own  impure  and  filthy  nature, 
Jesus  Christ  makes  use  of  them  to  defeat  their  own  pur- 
poses and  accomplish  his.  He  permitted  them  to  seduce 
our  first  parents,  that  he  might  "  make  a  show  of  the 
powers  of  darkness  openly,  and  triumph  over  them." 
Satan's  power  was  great  which  he  thus  erected  on  human 
crime ;  it  was  the  reign  of  sin.  And  the  reason  why 
Christ  permitted  him  to  erect  it  was,  to  show  that  his  own 
power  was  greater,  and  to  make  it  subserve  his  reign  of 
g.aco.  Claris'  and  his  kingdom  have  suffered  temporarily 
fro:^i  the  malice  of  fiends,  and  still  suffer  ;  but  he  is 
above  them,  and  turns  all  their  malice  to  good  account. 
It  is  among  the  more  resplendent  glories  of  his  throne, 
that  he  wrests  the  sceptre  from  their  grasp,  and  awards 
them  a  more  signal  defeat  for  all  their  hostility.  Nor  do 
we  need  a  more  impressive  exemplification  of  this  truth, 
than  that,  at  the  very  "hour  and  power  of  darkness" 
when  all  the  hosts  of  hell  were  summoned  against  him, 
and  every  art  was  tried,  and  all  their  malice  raged,  and 
they  had  actually  compassed  his  death,  unwittingly  they 


ALL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS.         335 

Struck  the  blow  which  crushed  the  serpent's  head.    From 
that  day  to  this,  he  has  not  only  been  limiting  and  coun- 
teracting their  influence,  but  overruling  it   for  their  loss 
and  his  gain,  for  their  shame  and  his  triumph,  for  their 
misery  and  his  and  his  people's  everlasting  joy.  To  saythat 
good  men  are  subservient  to  this  redemption  is  a  truism 
which  needs    no  illustration  ;  for  they  are  its  objects  as 
well  as  its  subjects.     They  are  said  to  be  "  in  Christ," 
to  "  suffer  with  him,"  to  be  "  crucified  with  him,"  to 
"  die  with  him,"  to  "rise  with  him,"  to  be  "glorified 
together  with  him."     He  it  is  that  secures   the  energy, 
and  gives  a  consistent  development,  a  growing  ascend- 
ancy, a  final  triumph,  to  their  every  gracious  principle 
and  affection,  and  imparts  to  them  those  supplies  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  by  which  their  spiritual  life  is  sustained,  ma- 
tured, and  perfected.     There  is  nothing  they  recognize 
more  implicitly  and  more  gratefully  than  the  importance 
of  their  relation  to  him  as  their  vital  Head.  This  gracious 
union  is  indissoluble  by  any  of  the  circumstances  by  which 
it  may  be  threatened,  and  is  eminently  conducive  to  the 
promotion  of  those  great  purposes  for  which,  from  eternity, 
he  resolved  to  redeem  a  church  from  among  men.    They 
are  one  in  him,  as  well  as  one  with  him.     He  is  the 
centre  and  bond   of  their  unity.     They  are  found  in  dif- 
ferent lands  and  in  different  nations  ;  some  of  them  are 
glorified  in  heaven,  and  some  are  militant  on  the  earth  ; 
but  they  are  all  one  body,  of  which  he  is  the  glorified  and 
reigning  Head.     "  None  of  us  liveth  to  himself,  and  no 
man  dieth  to  himself;  but  whether  we  live,  we  live  unto 
the  Lord,  and  whether  we  die,  we  die  unto  the  Lord. 
For  to  this  end  Christ  both  died  and  rose,  that  he  might 
be  Lord  both  of  the  dead  and  the  living."     When  at  the 
last  day  he  shall  surrender  the  mediatorial  trust,  all  his 
people  shall  be  found  gathered  together  in  one  body,  and 


336        ALL    THINGS    TIUBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS. 

be  presented  "  complete  in  him."  And  all  this  takes 
place  in  pursuance  of  the  comprehensive  design,  that  "  in 
the  dispensation  of  the  fulbiess  of  times  he  woukl  gather 
together  in  one  all  things  in  Christ." 

That  had  men  subserve  the  interests  of  Christ's  kingdom 
is  not  owing  to  them,  but  to  him.  "  They  mean  not  so, 
neither  in  their  heart  do  they  think  so."  Still  they  do 
it,  and  often  most  effectually.  The  antediluvian  world 
did,  when  they  built  the  ark  ;  Joseph's  brethren  did,  when 
they  sold  him  into  Egypt ;  the  Assyrian  Sennacherib  did, 
when  he  invaded  Judea ;  the  Jews  did,  when  they  deliv- 
ered the  Son  of  God  to  be  crucified  ;  and  Pilate  and  Herod 
did,  when  they  condemned  and  executed  him.  So  did 
Titus  when  he  besieged  Jerusalem ;  and  Tetzel,  by  the 
sale  of  indulgences ;  and  James,  by  his  severity  toward 
the  English  Puritans ;  and  the  demon  of  persecution,  by 
the  blood  of  the  martyrs.  Many  a  time  has  God  em- 
ployed ambitious  conquerors  for  the  diffusion  of  his  Gos- 
pel ;  the  tyranny  of  despots  to  give  liberty  to  his  people; 
the  pride  of  science  to  give  knowledge  of  salvation ;  the 
enterprise  and  economy  of  the  covetous  to  horde  up  trea- 
sures for  his  cause  and  kingdom  ;  and  the  "  wrath  of  man 
to  praise  the  Lord."  Where  he  does  not  thus  overrule 
the  wickedness  of  men,  he  restrains  it ;  and  when  their 
course  is  finished,  he  hurls  them  from  the  pinnacle  of 
their  glory  to  the  dust,  and  by  all  the  triumphs  of  his  jus- 
tice over  his  enemies  signalizes  the  still  greater  triumphs 
of  his  grace  toward  his  friends. 

What  is  the  Providence  of  God  but  the  execution  of 
this  great  purpose  of  redemption  ?  If  we  trace  the  prom- 
inent events  in  the  history  of  the  world,  fioni  the  first 
apostacy  to  the  present  hour,  we  see  that  the  great  out- 
lines of  the  divine  government,  and  the  issues  of  all  the 
great  movements  of  his  providence,  have  had  but  this 


ALL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS.         337 

common  centre,  and  this  commanding  object.     It  is  truly 
wonderful  to  reflect  on  the  events  that  have  taken  place 
and   the    changes    that   have    been   brought  about,  for 
advancing  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  the  world.     Men 
have  been  called  into  existence  for  no  other  purpose  than 
this.  For  this  kings  have  been  enthroned,  and  dethroned ; 
nations  have  been  born,  and   destroyed.     "  I  will  give 
men  for  thee,"  says  God  to  his  church,   "  and  people  for 
thy  life.     I  gave  Egypt  for  thy  ransom ;  Ethiopia  and 
Seba  for  thee."     The  kingdom  of  providence  is  the  the- 
atre of  the  most  wonderful   and  magnificent  operations  ; 
and  they  are  all  made  tributary  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ. 
The  more  minutely  they  are  inspected,  the  more  clearly 
will  they  be  found  to  develop  some  important  feature  in 
the  method  of  redeeming  mercy.     It  is  often  matter  of 
admiration  to  us  that  so  many  and   so  important  events 
take  place  in  such  rapid  succession ;  that  so  many  are- 
brought  about  by  the   most  unexpected  and  unnoticed 
instrumentality;  so  many  that  are  apparently  casual  and 
contingent ;  while  in  some  of  its  unseen  and  unnumbered 
influences,  the  Cross  is  exerting  its  attractions  upon  them 
all.    Latent  springs  are  in  operation  that  are  too  nice  and 
delicate  to  be  adjusted  by  the  human  mind,  and  that  are 
directed  only  by  infinite  wisdom.    The  infinite  Redeemer, 
everywhere  present,  and  coming,  as  it  were,  in  contact 
with  all  the  afllairs  of  this  world,  is  giving  them  a  direc- 
tion with  his  own  mighty  and  invisible  hand.     It  is  very 
difficult  for  a  Christian  to  give  any  account  of  innumera- 
ble events  which  have  taken  place,  and  are  continually 
taking  place,  without  tracing  them  up  to  their  designed 
subserviency  to  the   Cross.     We  may  account  for  some 
links  in  the  chain,  but  the  chain  itself  terminates  at  the 
Cro>s.     Ju,t  as  certainly  as  all  finite  things  and  all  finite 
minds  are  under  the  direction  of  the  Infinite,  are  they  all 
15 


338         -^LL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS. 

made  to  concentrate  in  this  great  and  comprehensive 
counsel.  This  wonderful  design  diffuses  itself  every- 
where, and  grasps  everything.  It  has  unmeasured  pleni- 
tude, and  is  the  "  fullness  of  Him  who  filleth  all  in  all." 
It  is  severed  from  nothing.  While  it  connects  with  it  the 
whole  material  and  intellectual  universe,  it  binds  to  it  in 
close  and  intimate  relations  all  the  movements  of  both. 
Though  not  a  few  of  them  may  be  dissimilar  in  their 
nature,  and  in  their  tendencies  uncongenial,  the  God  of 
Providence  lays  them  all  under  contribution  to  the  "  riches 
of  his  glory  in  Christ  Jesus,"  and  makes  them  all  speak 
forth  his  praises.  Go  where  you  will,  and  you  will  see 
results  which  but  for  him  had  never  been  known — results 
which  will  forever  be  viewed  with  increasing  interest 
from  the  relation  they  bear  to  his  Cross. 

How  unquestionable,  then,  is  the  truth  that  a  sad  defeat 
awaits  the  expectations  of  those  who  hope  to  prosper  in 
their  hostility  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ !  It  cannot  be 
otherwise  than  that  they  shall  be  put  to  shame.  This 
great  Saviour  shall  rule  even  in  the  midst  of  his  enemies. 
He  has  them  in  his  power,  because  God  has  given  him 
power  over  all  flesh.  If  you  are  his  enemy,  let  it  not  be 
forgotten  that  your  being  and  well-being  are  dependent 
on  liis  will.  Your  respite  from  the  condemning  sentence 
depends  solely  on  his  pleasure ;  and  when  his  purposes 
are  answered,  you  will  be  taken  by  his  unseen  hand,  and 
ensnared  and  broken.  He  limits,  and  restrains,  and 
controls  the  influence  you  are  exerting  against  him,  and 
is  even  now  making  it  subserve  his  great  design.  It  is  a 
most  mistaken  policy  to  set  yourself  against  the  Lord 
and  against  his  Christ :  because,  without  destroying  your 
accountability,  or  interfering  with  your  freedom,  he 
makes  all  your  conduct  subservient  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  own  counsels.     It  is  as  though  the  instru- 


ALL    THINGS    TRffiUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS.         339 

ment  should  rebel  against  him  that  wields  it ;  "as  if  the 
rod  should  shake  itself  against  them  that  lift  it  up,  or  the 
staff  should  lift  up  itself  against  him,  as  if  it  were  no 
wood !"  He  is  now  seeking  your  salvation  ;  but  if  you 
still  oppose  and  rebel,  instead  of  convincing  and  convert- 
ing you,  he  will  confound  and  destroy  you.  Honor  him 
you  must,  either  by  cheerfully  submitting  to  the  power 
of  his  grace,  or  being  made  to  submit  to  the  severity  of 
his  justice. 

But  the  main  thought  of  the  present  chapter  is  fraught 
more  with  consolation  than  with  rebuke.  It  is  altogether 
from  a  mistaken  view  of  God's  providence  that  those 
who  have  an  interest  in  this  redemption  sink  in  depres- 
sion and  despondency,  either  on  their  own  account,  or  on 
account  of  Zion's  calamity.  There  cannot  be  a  source  of 
higher  exultation  than  that  Jesus  Christ  is  "  Head  over 
all  things  to  his  church."  Whatever  is  tributary  to  the 
interests  of  his  kingdom,  is  tributary  to  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  all  those  who  comprise  it.  Come  what  will,  they 
are  safe,  they  are  happy.  "  Neither  death,  nor  life,  nor 
angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things  present, 
nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."  The  Christian's 
highest  interests  are  bound  up  in  that  redemption  to 
which  everything  in  the  universe  is  made  subservient. 
No  envenomed  dart  can  reach  him  that  does  not  first 
strike  the  heart  of  his  divine  Lord,  there  lose  its  sting, 
and  thence  be  turned  back  on  the  foe.  His  severest  afflic- 
tions are  to  be  numbered  among  his  choicest  mercies,  and 
as  certainly  subserve  his  welfare  as  they  do  the  kingdom 
of  his  adorable  Master.  "  All  things  are  yours  ;  whether 
Paul,  or  Apollos,  or  Cephas,  or  the  world,  or  life,  or 
death,  or  things  present,  or  things  to  come  ;  all  are  yours, 


340        ALL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS. 

and  ye  are  Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's."  The  bond 
which  unites  the  behever  to  Christ  is  an  impervious  shield 
against  every  enemy  and  evil.  Tribulation  may  come  ; 
those  he  loves,  and  whom  Jesus  loves,  may  die  and  be 
gathered  home ;  death  may  invade  his  own  pillow,  and 
he  may  dwell  beneath  the  clods  of  the  valley ;  but  his 
flesh  shall  rest  in  hope,  and  because  Jesus  lives  he  shall 
live  also.  "  All  things,"  be  they  what  they  may,  and 
where  they  may,  light  and  darkness,  joy  and  sorrow, 
good  and  evil,  friends  and  foes,  though  often  by  wonder- 
ful combinations  and  contrast,  "  work  together  for  good 
to  them  that  love  God."  If  the  omniscient  Saviour 
knows  how  to  promote  their  highest  and  holiest  happi- 
ness ;  if  the  gracious  Saviour  is  disposed  to  do  this ;  if 
there  is  no  restraint  upon  his  power,  and  the  omnipotent 
Saviour  is  able  to  bring  about  a  result  so  glorious ;  then 
have  his  people  the  assurance  that  he  will  bring  good  out 
of  evil,  and  light  out  of  darkness,  and  may  "  cast  their 
care  upon  him,  knowing  that  he  careth  for  them." 
"Dominion  is  with  him!"  His  "eyes  run  to  and  fro 
throughout  the  earth,  to  show  himself  strong  in  behalf 
of  those  whose  heart  is  perfect  toward  him."  Jesus 
reigns,  and  let  the  earth  rejoice  ! 

It  is  delightful  also  to  have  the  confidence,  that  the 
great  work  of  redemption,  in  the  hands  of  the  gracious 
Dispenser  of  the  New  Covenant,  will  be  crowned  with 
success.  Because  all  things  are  subjected  to  Christ,  he 
will  not  fail  to  make  them  all  tributary  to  his  kingdom. 
It  will  hold  on  its  course,  and  will  ultimately  receive  both 
the  reluctant  and  the  willing  homage  of  the  whole  creation. 
We  cannot  have  a  surer  guaranty  of  its  universal  ascend- 
ancy, than  the  truth  we  have  been  considering.  It  will 
reign  triumphantly  over  the  world,  and  all  will  honor 
the  Son,  even  as  they  honor  the  Father  who  sent  him. 


ALL    THINGS    TRIBUTARY    TO    THE    CROSS.  341 

His  Gospel  shall  be  everywhere  proclaimed ;  his  Spirit 
shall  be  sent  down  to  dwell  with  men ;  and  Christ  shall 
be  all  in  all.  Great  holiness  and  great  happiness  shall 
bless  mankind,  because  the  King  of  Zion  is  the  King  of 
the  vmiverse.  He  shall  "  create  Jerusalem  a  rejoicing 
and  his  people  a  joy  ;'•  and  "  he  shall  rejoice  in  Jerusa- 
lem and  joy  in  his  people,  and  the  voice  of  weeping  shall 
no  more  be  heard  in  her,  nor  the  voice  of  crying."  All 
that  is  written  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  and  the  power 
of  godliness,  and  the  glory  of  the  Son,  shall  then  be  veri- 
fied. The  earth  shall  become  his  temple,  consecrated 
by  his  presence,  bright  with  his  glory,  and  filled  with  his 
praise.  "  Every  creature  which  is  in  heaven,  and  on 
the  earth,  and  under  the  earth,  and  such  as  are  in  the 
sea,"  shall  then  be  heard,  "  saying.  Blessing  and  honor, 
and  glory  and  power,  be  unto  him  that  sitteth  upon  the 
throne,  and  to  the  Lamb  forever  !  And  the  four  living 
creatures  shall  say,  Amen !  And  the  four-and-twenty 
elders  shall  fall  down  and  worship  Him  that  liveth  for- 
ever and  ever  !" 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    CROSS    THE    ADMIRATION    OF    THE    UNIVERSE. 

The  Cross  of  Christ  furnishes  a  subject  of  interesting 
contempkition,  most  certainly,  to  men.  But  there  are 
other  intelhgent  beings  in  the  universe  beside  the  inhabit- 
ants of  this  lower  world.  While  the  lights  of  science 
furnish  strong  presumptive  evidence  of  the  existence  of 
other  systems  in  addition  to  those  mentioned  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, yet  are  we  warranted  in  saying  that  their  existence 
is  a  mere  theory,  and  one  which,  however  probable,  may 
not  be  numbered  among  well -ascertained  realities.  As 
believers  in  a  supernatural  revelation,  we  are  specially 
concerned  to  know  only  those  worlds  which  have  been, 
and  are  still,  and  forever  will  be,  more  or  less  affected  by 
that  great  remedial  economy,  redemption  by  the  Cross. 
These  are  composed  of  this  earth,  which  is  the  residence 
of  men  ;  of  the  Heaven  where  Jesus  Christ  dwells,  which 
is  the  residence  of  unfallen  angels,  and  of  the  spirits  of 
just  men  made  perfect;  and  of  Hell,  the  everlasting 
abode  of  the  angels  who  are  fallen,  and  of  that  portion 
of  the  human  race  who  live  and  die  without  God  and 
without  hope. 

How  the  Cross  affects  the  character  and  condition  of 
the  inhabitants  of  this  earth  we  have  already  seen.  Its 
influence  upon  the  divine  government  over  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  world  of  darkness  is,  in  one  respect,  lenient, 


THE    CROSS    THE    ADMIRATION,    &c.  343 

and  in  another  severely  just.  Its  lenity  is  felt  in  the 
mitigated  punishment  of  the  devils  and  the  damned, 
until  the  judg-ment  of  the  Great  Day ;  and  its  just  severity, 
in  their  augmented  punishment  after  that  last  day  of 
time.  The  devil  and  his  angels  now  roam  over  this 
earth  in  unseen  forms,  "  seeking  whom  they  may  de- 
vour;" and  in  this  liberty,  they  have  some  respite 
from  the  sufferings  which  they  will  endure  hereafter, 
only  through  the  influence  of  the  Cross.  Nor  will  wicked 
men,  who  are  now,  and  who  will  hereafter  become,  in- 
habitants of  the  world  of  darkness,  endure  the  full 
measure  of  suffering  that  awaits  them  until  after  the 
resurrection,  when  both  soul  and  body  "go  away  into 
everlasting  punishment."  These  features  of  the  divine 
government  toward  tlie  inhabitants  of  the  world  of  per- 
dition, are  no  doubt  modified  by  the  Cross,  and  are  the 
necessary  accompaniments  of  the  divine  procedure  in  car- 
rying into  effect  his  designs  of  mercy  toward  his  church. 
Nor  will  they  assume  the  form  of  perfect  and  unmitigated 
justice,  until  the  mediatorial  kingdom  of  the  Son  is 
brought  to  an  end,  and  all  his, enemies  are  subdued  under 
his  feet.  Whether  the  region  of  the  reprobate  is  affected 
in  any  other  way  by  the  Cross,  we  do  not  know,  and 
have  no  curiosity  to  inquire.  It  is  a  dreadful  world  now, 
and  it  will  be  still  more  dreadful  after  that  despised 
Saviour  shall  have  come  in  his  glory,  with  all  the  holy 
angels  with  him,  and,  in  obedience  to  his  resistless  man- 
date, legions  of  devils  and  multitudes  of  our  fallen  race 
shall  enter  their  gloomy  prison,  and  he  "that  shutteth 
and  no  man  openeth,"  shall  shut  its  doors,  and  they 
"  shall  go  no  more  out!" 

There  is  another  class  of  beings  who  contemplate  the 
Cross  with  deep  emotion.  I  mean  those  pure  and  celes- 
tial spirits  which  the  Scriptures  call  angels  ;  those  crea- 


344  THE    CROSS    THE    ADIMIRATION 

tiires  of  God  who  still  retain  their  primeval  integrity. 
The  number  of  these  exalted  intelligences  is  not  known 
to  us;  though,  from  several  hints  in  the  Word  of  God, 
we  have  reason  to  believe  it  is  very  great,  if  not  greater 
than  all  the  tribes  of  men.  With  their  character  we  are 
better  acquainted.  Created  in  the  image  of  God,  that 
image  remains  in  all  its  loveliness,  untarnished  by  sin, 
and  resplendent  in  all  the  beauties  of  holiness.  The  fac- 
ulties and  powers  of  their  minds  act  in  due  and  uniform 
subordination  to  each  other  ;  nor  has  this  order  ever  been 
confounded,  or  this  harmony  disturbed.  Their  under- 
standings are  clear,  and  they  never  grope  in  darkness, 
because  they  have  never  been  alienated  from  the  life  of 
God,  himself  the  eternal  source  of  light  and  truth.  Their 
conscience  has  never  gone  astray,  because  their  sense  of 
right  and  wrong  has  never  been  violated.  Their  affec- 
tions are  pure,  and  unmingled  by  any  base  alloy.  As 
they  look  back,  they  have  nothing  to  regret ;  and,  as  they 
look  forward,  they  have  nothing  to  fear.  They  are  called 
"  holy  angels,"  and  "  elect  angels,"  because,  when  those 
of  their  number  who  kept  not  their  just  estate,  involved 
themselves  in  ruin  by  wilful  rebellion,  they  stood  fast  and 
firm,  and  were  confirmed  in  holiness  and  happiness  forever. 
They  are  styled  "  spirits,"  because,  though  probably  not 
pure  and  uncompounded  spirits  like  the  Deity,  they  are 
strangers  to  all  that  is  gross  and  earthly,  and  subsist  in  an 
element  where  spiritual  bodies  alone  subsist.  They  are 
exalted  above  men  in  the  rank  of  intelligent  existences, 
for  we  are  told  that  man  was  made  lower  than  they.  They 
are  distinguished  for  wonderful  powers,  wonderful  activity, 
and  unexampled  obedience  ;  for  the  Scriptures  inform  us 
"  that  they  excel  in  strength,  that  he  maketh  his  angels 
spirits,  and  his  ministers  a  flame  of  fire  ;"  and  that  they 
''  are  swift  to  do  his  will,  hearkening  to  the  voice  of  his 


OF    THE    UNIVERSE.  345 

word."  As  they  possess  the  highest  and  most  glorious 
created  nature,  so  they  occupy  the  highest  station  occu- 
pied by  creatures,  and  have  their  fixed  habitation  in  that 
world  where  God  dwells  in  glory,  and  where  the  God- 
inan  ascended  when  he  went  up  on  high.  Their  em- 
ployment is  the  most  exalted  employment.  They  "stand 
in  the  presence  of  God  ;"  they  minister  to  him  in  the 
high  services  of  his  Holy  Temple ;  and  when  they  exe- 
cute his  commissions  toward  this  world,  the  sons  of  men 
are  filled  with  consternation  and  horror,  or  the  earth  is 
lightened  at  their  glory,  as  they  come  on  errands  of  judg- 
ment, or  errands  of  mercy. 

We  may  not  wander  into  the  regions  of  conjecture, 
when  illustrating  the  truth  of  God  :  it  is  for  the  most 
part  forbidden  us;  and,  like  the  tree  of  knowledge  rudely 
invaded  by  our  first  parents,  the  fruit  we  pluck  from  it 
gives  us  more  experience  of  evil  than  of  good.  It  would, 
however,  be  but  following  out  the  analogy  of  the  divine 
government,  to  adopt  the  supposition  that  the  entire 
angelic  race,  like  the  race  of  men,  were  originally  placed 
in  a  state  of  probation  for  a  limited  time,  and  in  view  of 
some  well-known  test  of  obedience.  Like  all  moral 
beings,  they  must  necessarily  have  held  their  existence 
under  law.  Their  exalted  rank  and  character  did  not 
free  them  from  the  bonds  of  moral  obligation  ;  the  will 
of  God  was  the  rule  of  their  duty,  and  their  disobedience 
would  have  been  crime  and  perdition.  It  were  in  per- 
fect keeping  with  several  intimations  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, that  the  test  of  their  obedience  was  the  same  which 
now  constitutes  the  test  of  ours,  and  that  is,  the  Cross  of 
Christ.  When  God  created  man,  it  might  have  seemed 
to  angels  that  he  created  a  rival  race.  Though  formed 
out  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  he  was  made  lord  of  this 
lower  creation,  and  evidently  destined  to  some  high  and 
15* 


346  THE    CROSS    THE    ADMIRATION 

exalted  sphere.  When  the  purpose  was  disclosed,  that 
one  of  the  descendants  of  this  newly-created  race  should 
he  advanced  to  the  honor  of  becoming  the  Son  of  God  ; 
that  in  the  fullness  of  time  the  human  nature  should  be 
united  to  the  second  person  in  the  adorable  Trinity ;  that 
all  things  in  heaven  and  on  earth  should  be  given  into 
his  hands ;  that  all  the  angels  of  God  must  worship  him 
and  acknowledge  him  as  their  Lord  ;  and  that  it  should 
be  the  prescribed  duty  of  the  angelic  host  to  become 
attendants  upon  their  suffering  Prince,  until  he  had  com- 
pleted his  career  of  degradation  and  woe  ;  the  announce- 
ment may  be  supposed  to  have  been  received  with  different 
emotions  by  the  angelic  hosts.  It  is  revealed  to  us,  that 
there  was  one  lofty  and  proud  spirit  that  revolted  from 
the  divine  government,  and  whom  some  test  of  obedience 
showed  to  be  a  rebel.  Nor  was  he  alone  in  this  rebellion, 
but  drew  after  him  a  multitude  of  spirits  who  sympa- 
thized in  his  revolt,  and  openly  avowed  their  hostility  to 
the  Son  of  God.  Others  there  were  who  honored  him, 
and  pledged  to  him  their  allegiance.  And  from  that  day 
to  this,  the  fallen' have  been  the  uniform  enemies  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  wanting  in  no  subtilty,  no  malignity,  and  no 
effort  to  frustrate  the  great  design  of  his  Cross  ;  while  the 
latter  have  paid  him  their  highest  homage,  and  withhold 
no  vigilance,  no  tenderness,  no  cooperation,  in  advancing 
this  glorious  purpose. 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  turn  our  thoughts  tc 
some  of  the  incidents  in  the  history  of  this  redemption, 
and  mark  the  allegiance  and  fidelity  of  these  pure  and 
happy  spirits  toward  the  incarnate  Deity.  The  Apostle 
Paul  mentions  it  as  one  of  the  mysteries  of  godliness, 
that  he  was  "  seen  of  angels  ;"  and  there  is  higher 
import  in  this  phraseology  than  lies  upon  the  face  of  it. 
Not  only  was  his  whole  progress,  from  Bethlehem  to 


OF    THE    UNIVERSE.  347 

Calvary,  observed  by  them,  but  the  whole  design,  from 
its  first  development  in  the  garden  of  Eden  down  to  its 
final  issues,  when  he  shall  come  again  a  second  time  to 
judge  the  world  in  righteousness,  so  observed  as  to  war- 
rant the  declaration  of  another  apostle,  when  he  says, 
"  which  things  the  angels  desire  to  look  into."  We  read 
in  the  Old  Testament  of  the  frequent  appearance  to  the 
Patriarchs  of  a  distinguished  personage,  called,  by  way 
of  eminence,  "  the  angel  of  the  Lord"  or  more  properly 
speaking,  the  angel  Jehovah^  or  the  second  person  in  the 
Trinity.  Not  unfrequently  did  he  anticipate  thus  his 
incarnation ;  and  when  he  did  so,  he  was  frequently 
attended  by  some  of  the  angelic  hosts.  They  watched 
the  unfolding  of  his  designs  of  mercy,  and  marked  with 
interest  all  that  he  did  to  advance  that  wonderful  work. 
Preparatory,  merely,  as  that  age  was  to  his  advent,  and 
moreover  a  dark  age,  and  the  age  of  judgment,  angels 
were  the  more  visible  executioners  of  his  displeasure,  in 
removing  out  of  the  way  the  stumbling-blocks  which 
opposed  the  advancement  of  his  kingdom.  They  were 
not  careless  spectators  of  those  great  and  disastrous  events 
by  which  the  promises  to  Abraham  were  fulfilled,  and  by 
which  his  posterity  were  delivered  from  bondage,  and 
received  the  law  through  their  own  ministration.  Nor 
were  they  uninterested  observers  of  those  successive  revo- 
lutions by  which  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  were  over- 
thrown, that  the  predicted  Messiah  might  come  and  rule 
upon  the  throne  of  David.  In  later  periods,  it  was  one 
of  their  own  number  who,  as  the  time  of  his  incarnation 
drew  near,  was  sent  to  the  father  of  his  more  immediate 
forerunner  to  inform  him  that  the  day  was  drawing  nigh 
when  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  should  arise,  with  healing 
in  his  beams.  The  same  angel  was  commissioned  from 
heaven  to  announce  to  the  Virgin  Mother  of  our  Lordj 


348  THE    CROSS    THE    ADmRATION 

that  she  should  "  bring  forth  a  son  and  call  his  name 
Jesus."  When  the  fullness  of  time  was  come,  and  he  was 
born  at  Bethlehem,  an  angel  was  directed  to  announce  his 
birth  to  the  shepherds  ;  and  no  sooner  had  he  delivered 
his  joyful  message,  than  "  suddenly  there  was  w^ith  him 
a  multitude  of  the  heavenly  hosts,"  all  eager  to  repeat 
the  tidings,  "  saying.  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on 
earth  peace  and  good  will  toward  men  !"  They  knew 
who  it  was  that  slept  in  the  manger  ;  and  when  the  shep- 

glorifying  and  praising 
1  heard  and  seen,"  they 
could  but  respond  to  their  praises,  because  he  had  come 
who  was  "  a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles,  and  the  glory  of 
his  people,  Israel."  It  is  not  wonderful  that  the  world 
did  not  recognize  him  in  that  humble  guise,  while  angels 
beheld  in  him  the  Sovereign  to  whom  they  had  vowed 
allegiance,  even  during  that  dark  period  when  he  should 
lay  aside  his  robes  of  royalty,  to  be  clothed  with  flesh 
and  blood.  Still  less  wonderful  is  it,  that  when  the  fiends 
of  darkness  instigated  the  jealous  Herod  and  the  troubled 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  to  form  the  malignant  plot  against 
the  life  of  the  infant  Redeemer,  that,  circumvented  as  he 
was  by  this  malignant  design,  an  angel  should  appear  to 
Joseph  in  a  dream,  and  conduct  this  holy  family  down 
to  Egypt,  there  to  remain  until  the  storm  had  passed 
away,  and  by  his  own  watchful  care  preserve  the  young 
child  from  the  fury  of  the  tempest.  Nor  was  there  any 
intermission  of  this  angelic  guardianship  ;  for,  no  sooner 
than  Herod  was  dead,  did  the  angel,  according  to  his 
promise,  appear  again  to  Joseph,  to  inform  him  that  the 
danger  was  past,  and  that  the  child  and  his  mother  might 
return  to  the  land  of  Israel. 

Thus  angels  watched    and  guarded  him  through  all 
his  infancy,  and  childhood,  and  youth,  up  to  the  day  of 


OF    THE    UNIVERSE.  349 

his  baptism.  And  never  had  they  such  a  charge,  and 
never  will  they  have  again !  It  was  the  holy  child 
Jesus ;  one  among  the  descendants  of  Adam,  yet  pure 
and  sinless ;  the  Son  of  God — the  hope  of  the  world ! 
Soon  after  his  baptism,  the  fallen  and  dark  spirits  of 
hell  again  assailed  him,  and  he  was  led  into  the  wilder- 
ness, to  roam  in  solitude  amid  its  darkness  and  its  beasts 
of  prey,  and  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil.  But  there  were 
not  wanting  pure  and  celestial  spirits,  keeping  their  watch 
in  the  desert,  and  filling  the  air  with  their  etherial  forms. 
And  after  the  struggle  was  over,  and  the  arch  adversary, 
confounded  and  abashed,  had  left  the  field,  "behold, 
angels  came  and  ministered  unto  him."  He  who  "  came 
not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,"  here  received 
the  service  of  these  messengers  of  mercy.  They  con- 
gratulated him  on  his  victory,  cheered  him  in  his 
solitude,  brought  him  water  from  the  rock,  wild  fruits 
of  the  desert,  and  with  modest  and  humble  sympathy 
comforted  him  with  the  thought  that,  though  abandoned 
of  earth  and  contending  with  fiends,  he  was  not  forgotten 
of  God.  The  scene  in  Gethsemane,  where,  in  his  deep 
depression,  "  an  angel  appeared  strengthening  him," 
will  not  be  easily  forgotten.  And  when  he  stood  before 
the  tribunal  that  condemned  him,  angels  were  not  far 
from  that  mournful  scene ;  for  he  intimated  to  his 
enemies,  that  they  only  waited  his  Father's  permission 
and  bidding  to  fly  to  his  rescue.  They  watched  the 
whole  of  that  shameful  process,  and  the  catastrophe  of 
that  memorable  tragedy,  when  he  gave  up  the  ghost  and 
was  laid  in  the  tomb  of  Joseph.  They  guarded  the 
sepulchre ;  and,  as  soon  as  the  morning  of  the  third  day 
dawned,  as  proof  that  his  sacrifice  was  accepted,  an 
angel  was  commissioned  to  roll  away  the  large  fragment 
of  rock  that  was  laid  at  the  mouth  of  it,  and  at  the  sight 


350  THE    CROSS    THE    ADMIRATION 

of  him  the  Roman  soldiers  trembled  and  became  as  dead 
men.  After  he  had  risen  from  the  dead,  also,  two  angels 
still  remained  about  his  tomb  "in  shining  garments," 
so  that  those  who  came  early  in  the  morning  with  spices 
to  embalm  him,  "were  afraid,  and  bowed  down  their 
faces  to  the  earth ;"  nor  were  their  fears  relieved  until 
they  had  the  testimony  and  assurance  of  these  witnesses 
from  heaven  that  he  had  risen,  as  he  had  predicted. 
When,  too,  at  the  expiration  of  forty  days,  he  ascended 
up  into  heaven,  two  angels  stood  by  his  wondering  and 
disconsolate  disciples,  in  white  apparel,  pointing  to  the 
heaven  where  he  had  gone,  and  whence  he  would  come 
again  in  like  manner  as  they  had  seen  him  go.  And 
now  that  he  is  gone,  while  they  adore  and  worship  him 
in  heaven,  and  offer  him  the  incense  of  their  praise,  they 
are  not  less  mindful  than  they  once  were  of  the  great 
w^ork  of  his  redemption  on  the  earth.  They  watch  over 
his  church,  and  he  still  sends  them  on  messages  of  love 
to  men,  as  "  ministering  spirits  sent  forth  to  minister  for 
them  who  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation !"  There  is  little 
doubt  but  guardian  angels  hover  around  the  people  of 
God  for  their  defence  and  comfort ;  and  when  they  die, 
their  spirits,  like  that  of  the  beggar  in  the  parable,  are 
"  carried  by  angels  to  Abraham's  bosom."  "  Take 
heed,"  says  the  Saviour,  "  that  ye  offend  not  one  of 
these  little  ones  which  believe  in  me ;  for  in  heaven, 
their  angels  do  always  behold  the  face  of  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven."  There  is  no  office  of  love  which 
they  are  not  willing  to  perform,  and  to  which  they  are 
not  bound  by  allegiance  to  their  Lord.  Though  not 
human,  they  are  members  of  Christ's  family,  and  take 
delight  in  serving  its  younger  branches  in  this  distant 
world.  Such  is  the  interest  they  take  in  the  successes  of 
this  redemption,  that  they  watch  the  influence  of  every 


OF    THE    UiNIVERSE.  35  j 

Sabbath,  hover  over  every  assembly  of  worshipers,  and 
express  their  joy  when  even  "  one  sinner  repenteth." 
In  the  great  conflict  which  is  going-  on  in  our  world,  these 
angels  of  light  are  contending  with  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness, and,  by  all  their  vigilance  and  mighty  energy, 
forestalling  the  machinations  and  the  influence  of  him 
who  "  goeth  about,  like  a  roaring  lion,  seeking  whom  he 
may  devour." 

Angels  and  powers  are  thus  made  subject  to  Jesus 
Christ.  Still  they  are  ministering  spirits,  and  their  min- 
istration will  continue  till  the  close  of  time.  At  the 
opening  of  the  sixth  seal  of  the  Apocalypse,  John  saw 
"  four  angels  standing  on  the  four  corners  of  the  earth, 
holding  the  four  winds ;"  and  he  saw  "  another  angel 
ascending  from  the  East,  having  the  seal  of  the  Living 
God  :  and  he  cried  with  a  loud  voice  to  the  four  angels, 
saying.  Hurt  not  the  earth,  neither  the  sea,  nor  the  trees, 
till  we  have  sealed  the  servants  of  our  God  in  their  fore- 
heads." At  the  opening  of  the  seventh  seal,  he  saw 
"seven  angels  which  stood  before  God;  and  to  them 
were  given  seven  trumpets.  And  another  angel  came 
and  stood  at  the  altar,  having  a  golden  censer ;  and  there 
was  given  him  much  incense,  that  he  should  offer  it  with 
the  prayers  of  all  saints  upon  the  golden  altar  which  was 
before  the  throne."  These  seven  angels  successively 
sounded  their  trumpets,  and  woe  after  woe  fell  upon  the 
earth,  and  accomplished  their  work  of  destruction  upon 
the  incorrigible  nations  who  had  "  taken  counsel  together 
against  the  Lord  and  against  his  Christ."  After  this, 
"there  was  war  in  heaven:  Michael  and  his  angels  fought 
against  the  Dragon;  and  the  Dragon  fought  and  his 
angels,  and  prevailed  not."  And  then  was  heard  a  loud 
voice,  saying  in  heaven,  "  Now  is  come  salvation  and 
strength,  and  the  kingdom  of  our  God,  and  the  power  of 


352  THE    CROSS    THE    ADMIRATION 

his  Christ."  After  this,  he  "  saw  another  angel  fly  in 
tlie  midst  of  heaven,  having-  the  everlasting  Gospel  to 
preach  unto  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth ;"  then  followed 
another,  saying,  "Babylon  is  fallen,  is  fallen  5"  then 
another  came  out  of  the  Temple,  to  "reap  the  harvest 
of  the  earth;"  and  then  "another  came  down  from 
heaven,  having  the  key  of  the  bottomless  pit  and  a  great 
chain  in  his  hand,  and  laid  hold  on  the  Dragon,  that  old 
Serpent,  w^hich  is  the  Devil  and  Satan,  and  bound  him  a 
thousand  years." 

I  have  said  that  this  angelic  ministration  will  continue 
to  the  close  of  time.  Of  this,  we  have  the  most  explicit 
information.  When  the  end  shall  come,  the  Son  of  Man 
"  shall  send  forth  his  angels  to  gather  out  of  his  kingdom 
all  things  that  do  offend,"  and  he  himself  will  come  in  the 
clouds  of  heaven,  "  in  the  glory  of  his  Father,  and  with 
his  angels,"  to  judge  the  world.  The  mystery  of  God  will 
then  be  completed,  and  the  issues  of  this  redemption 
shall  form  the  theme  of  that  angelic  song  of  "much 
people  in  heaven,  saying,  Salvation,  and  glory,  and 
honor,  and  power  unto  the  Lord  our  God ! 

Such  is  the  interest  which  other  worlds  take  in  the  Cross 
of  Christ.  It  is  perhaps  desirable  to  direct  our  thoughts 
to  some  of  the  reasons  of  this  angelic  sympathy,  and  take 
a  brief  view  of  the  considerations  by  which  it  is  so  long 
sustained.  These  will  appear,  in  part  at  least,  from  the 
following  observations. 

The  facts  themselves,  connected  with  the  Cross  of 
Christ,  are  sufficient  to  excite  and  sustain  the  attention 
of  this  exalted  race  of  intelligences.  It  has  been  the 
object  of  the  preceding  chapters  to  show  what  these  facts 
are.  They  are  its  great  Sufferer,  and  his  stupendous  de- 
signs of  wisdom  and  mercy.  They  are  his  truth  and  grace, 
his  humiliation,  exaltation,  and  kingdom  set  up  in  the 


OF    THE    UNIVERSE.  353 

hearts  of  millions,  and  established,  in  defiance  of  his  ma- 
lignant and  powerful  foe,  and   recognized    throughout 
the  universe  of  God.     They  are  the  history  of  this  great 
universe,  identified  as  it  is  with  the  history  of  the  Cross, 
and  giving  to  the  government  of  God  over  his  moral 
creation,   that  absorbing   interest,  and   importance,  and 
emphasis,  which  are  its  due.     The  more  we  ourselves, 
with  our  limited  capacities  and  knowledge,  take  a  view 
of  these  great  facts,  and  enter  into  their  solemn  and 
afl'ecting  import,  the  more  do  they  produce  strong  emo- 
tions, even  within  our  own  bosoms.     What  overwhelm- 
ing interest,  then,  is  attached  to  them,  when  contemplated 
by  an  angel's  mind !     These  exalted  beings  are  not  indif- 
ferent to  any  of  the  works  of  God ;  they  sang  together, 
as  so  many  morning  stars,  at  the  birth  of  this  exterior 
creation.    But  what  an  atom  is  this  lower  world,  with  all 
its  glory,  in  their  estimation,  compared  with  the  Cross ! 
How  little  impression  is  made  upon  their  minds  by  all  its 
revolutions,  all  the  wealth  and  splendor  of  its  princes,  all 
its  conflicts  and  victories,  in  contrast  with  his  Cross  who 
is  the  Creator  of  them  all,  and  their  own  Creator  and 
Lord !     They  take   an  interest  in  the  dispensations  of 
divine  providence,  and  observe  and  mark  them  as  they 
are  progressively  evolved  ;  but  they  take  a  greater  inter- 
est in  the  Cross,  because  it  is  the  centre  of  them  all,  and 
the  ultimate  point  to  which  every  other  purpose  of  God 
is  directed.     A  stumbling-block  and  foolishness  as  it  is  to 
multitudes  of  this  low  world,  to   them    it   is  the  great 
mystery    of    godliness;    their    study    and    admiration; 
"  the  master-piece  of  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God ;  the 
wonder  of  the  universe."     All  lesser  lights  are  eclipsed 
by  the  superior  splendor  of  this  Sun  of  Righteousness. 
Well  did  the  Eternal  Father  say,  when  he  introduced  his 


354        THE  CROSS  THE  ADMIRATION 

first-begotten  into  the  world,  "  Let  all  the  angels  of  God 
worship  him  !" 

There  are  also  blessings  secured  by  the  Cross,  in  which 
these  exalted  intelligences  take  a  deep  and  hallowed 
interest.  Angels  are  of  a  perfectly  benevolent  character. 
They  delight  in  holiness,  and  in  the  happiness  which 
holiness  secures.  Their  exaltation  above  this  world,  and 
above  the  sinful  race  which  occupies  it,  does  not  prevent 
their  taking  a  deep  interest  in  its  welfare.  The  salvation 
of  a  single  soul  is  to  them  a  matter  of  deep  and  attractive 
interest ;  while  the  spiritual  renovation  and  consequent 
joy  of  the  untold  multitudes  that  are  brought  into  the 
divine  kingdom  through  the  influence  of  the  Cross,  fill 
them  with  triumph  and  exultation  such  as  those  minds 
alone  are  capable  of  enjoying  that  are  affected  by  no  taint 
of  sin.  There  is  a  magnitude  and  importance,  a  reality 
and  weight,  in  the  blessings  secured  by  the  Cross,  which 
none  but  angelic  minds  can  discern.  They  are  number- 
less as  the  evils  from  which  the  soul  of  man  is  delivered, 
and  as  the  moments  of  that  happy  eternity  to  which  it 
is  advanced ;  and  in  their  dimensions  such  as  cannot 
be  measured  even  by  the  ken  of  angels.  Yet  these 
benevolent  beings  have  a  far  more  just  and  adequate  con- 
ception of  them,  than  though  they  were  men  like  our- 
selves, and  dwelt,  as  we  dwell,  at  such  a  distance  from 
that  ineffable  glory  to  which  the  Cross  ultimately  intro- 
duces the  myriads  of  its  redeemed.  The  eternity  which 
is  hidden  from  our  view,  is  open  to  theirs ;  the  heights 
of  purity  to  which  our  minds  never  soar,  are  but  the 
common  level  of  their  own  ;  while  the  fullness  of  joy  of 
which  we  have  but  the  foretaste,  springs  up  in  their  bosoms 
as  rivers  of  pleasure  and  overflowing  fountains  of  salva- 
tion.    The  thought  that  sinners  of  our  race  will  one  day 


OF    THE    UNIVERSE.  355 

be  made  like  unto  themselves,  and  be  brought  as  near  to 
the  Father  of  lights  as  they ;  be  as  holy  as  they  now 
are,  and,  as  redeemed  sinners,  possess  some  traits  of  holy 
character  more  amiable  and  lovely  than  theirs ;  while 
with  them  they  will  explore  the  exhaustless  sources  of 
blessedness  attendant  on  their  common  immortality ; 
cannot  but  communicate  unutterable  delight  to  minds  as 
holy  and  benevolent  as  theirs. 

Besides  this,  the  realities  of  the  Cross  bear  a  relation 
to  their  interests.  Though  not  redeemed,  they  have  a 
personal  interest  in  the  glorious  consequences  of  redemp- 
tion. On  the  apostacy  of  those  of  their  own  angelic 
family  who  were  cast  down  to  hell,  they  remained  the 
only  race  that  were  true  and  loyal  to  their  Prince.  In 
attaching  themselves  to  his  person  and  to  the  ministra- 
tions of  his  Cross,  they  entered  upon  that  fearful  conflict 
in  which  every  trophy  of  the  Redeemer's  grace  gave  fresh 
laurels  to  their  own  crown.  His  conquests  are  theirs  ; 
the  captives  of  his  truth  and  love  are  victory  and  gain  to 
their  own  cause  ;  and  every  accession  to  his  kingdom 
swells  the  number  of  that  holy  family  of  which,  as  he  is 
the  Head,  so  they  are  but  the  elder  children.  It  is  by 
the  Cross  of  Christ  that  the  angelic  host  sustain  relations 
to  this  world  which  they  would  not  otherwise  have  sus- 
tained, and  it  is  only  by  the  Cross  that  they  discover  that 
relation.  By  taking  hold  of  the  lowest  link  of  the  chain 
of  created  intelligences  and  binding  them  to  the  highest, 
the  Cross  binds  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  and  constitutes 
them  all  one  spiritual  and  happy  community.  It  is  the 
bond  which  unites  the  entire  holy  universe.  It  is  through 
this  comprehensive  influence,  that  God  "  purposed  in 
himself,  that  in  tlie  dispensation  of  the  fullness  of  times, 
he  might  gather  together  in  one  all  things  in  Christ,  both 
which  are  in  heaven  and   which  are  on  earth,  even  in 


356  THE    CROSS    THE    ADMIRATION 

him."  "  It  pleased  the  Father  that  in  him  shoukl  all 
fullness  dwell,  and  having  made  peace  through  the 
blood  of  the  Cross,  by  him  to  reconcile  all  things  to 
himself:  by  him,  I  say,  whether  they  be  things  on 
earth,  or  things  in  heaven."  It  was  an  important 
and  interesting  epoch  in  the  history  of  angels,  when  the 
period  of  their  probation  closed,  and  theyAvere  confirmed 
in  holiness,  as  redeemed  and  believing  sinners  are  con- 
firmed by  their  faith  in  Christ.  It  is  not  forbidden  us 
to  believe  that  it  is  by  the  Cross  that  they  are  united  with 
the  confirmed  family  of  believers,  and  with  them  stand 
immovably  and  forever.  Nor  is  the  assurance  anywhere 
discoverable  in  the  Word  of  God,  that  the  time  might  not 
come  when,  like  their  former  companions  in  glory  who 
fell,  they  might  also  have  been  permitted  to  leave  their 
first  estate,  but  for  the  influence  of  the  Cross  and  the 
proof  it  furnished  of  their  inviolate  allegiance  to  the  great 
redeeming  God  and  King. 

There  is  still  another  reason  for  the  interest  which  this 
holy  and  angelic  race  take  in  the  Cross  of  Christ.  It  ii> 
the  great  medium  by  which  all  the  perfections  of  God  are 
exhibited,  and  the  fullness  of  the  divine  glory  flows  out  for 
the  everlasting  blessedness  of  the  holy  universe.  God  him- 
self is  the  portion  and  joy  of  angels.  It  is  the  contem- 
plation of  his  great  and  glorious  chara(iter,  and  the 
reflection  of  that  uncreated  light  in  which  he  dwells,  that 
makes  them  what  they  are.  Though  the  essential  glory 
of  God  cannot  be  increased,  and  nothing  can  make  him 
holier,  or  wiser,  or  more  glorious  than  he  is,  yet  does  he 
mani  fest  these  inherent  and  unchanging  perfections  of 
his  nature  in  continual  augmentation  and  enlargement. 
He  does  so  by  his  works  of  creation  and  providence,  but 
more  especially  by  his  greater  work  of  grace.  The  "glory 
of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,"  is  his  only  true  glory. 


OF    THE    UNIVERSE.  3517 

It  was  "  to  the  intent,  that  now  unto  principalities  and 
powers  in  heavenly  places''^  this  glory  might  be  mani- 
fested, that  his  Son  took  our  nature  and  died  on  the 
accursed  tree.  T.ake  the  Cross  away  from  our  world, 
and  angels  themselves  would  see  comparatively  little  of 
God.  The  fullness,  the  richness,  the  resplendency  of 
the  divine  nature  would  have  been  forever  obscured. 
Angels  would  indeed  have  beheld  his  character  without  a 
stain,  but  they  would  not  have  beheld  it  as  it  is.  Though 
its  excellencies  would  never  have  withered,  never  lan- 
guished, they  would  never  have  stood  out  in  their  appro- 
priate, glowing  glory.  Angels  would  have  seen  that  he 
is  powerful,  and  wise,  and  just,  and  good;  but  they  would 
never  have  known  how  justice  and  mercy,  in  all  their 
wonderful  and  strange  combinations,  constitute  his  adorn- 
ment and  glory,  but  for  the  Cross.  Their  knowledge 
and  admiration  of  the  divine  character  were  greatly  in- 
creased by  a  discovery  of  this  great  design,  and  it  has 
been  increasing  from  that  day  to  this.  This  stupendous 
design  attracts  their  attention  more  and  more,  because  it 
is  so  full  of  God.  To  the  present  hour,  their  contempla- 
tion of  it  engages  their  purest  and  most  ardent  affections. 
That  moral  phenomenon,  the  love  of  God  in  the  gift  of 
his  Son,  attracting  to  his  person  and  his  throne  untold 
multitudes  of  a  race  otherwise  degraded,  despised,  and 
cast  off  forever,  excites  within  them  joy  and  ecstacy 
which  never  could  have  been  otherwise  excited.  It  is 
not  to  heaven  that  angels  now  look  for  the  brightest  ex- 
hibitions of  the  Deity,  but  to  earth.  They  are  not  the 
scenes  of  celestial  splendor  which  so  much  enchant  them, 
as  the  scenes  that  once  took  place  here  in  this  lower 
world,  and  that  are  even  now  prolonged.  The  most 
transporting  exhibitions  of  the  God  who  is  invisible,  are 
made  through  the  Sufferer  of  Calvary,  and  angels  behold 


358  THE    CROSS    THE    ADMIRATION 

them  here ;  and  when  they  would  have  the  most  vivid 
impressions  of  them,  they  still  bend  from  their  thrones  to 
look  toward  Calvary  and  the  Cross.  Then  it  is  that  they 
veil  their  faces,  and,  as  they  tell  of  its  mysteries,  "  say 
one  to  another,  Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  Almighty, 
the  whole  earth  is  full  of  his  glory !"  The  Cross  has 
attractions  for  angels.  So  long  as  the  source  and  fullness 
of  their  joy  is  the  knowledge  and  enjoyment  of  God,  it 
is  but  to  veil  the  Cross,  and  you  shut  up  the  sources  of 
their  highest  joy.  They  are  not  simply  a  few  broken 
and  refracted  rays  of  the  divine  glory  that  they  desire,  or 
that  make  them  as  holy  and  happy  as  they  are.  Obscure 
the  Cross,  and,  because  you  would  thus  abate  their  high 
and  intense  admiration  of  the  divine  character,  you  would 
suppress  the  most  exalted  strains  of  their  everlasting 
song. 

Will  the  reader  contemplate  the  Cross  with  some  such 
spiritual  cmo!ions'?  Not  one  of  all  that  guilty  race  for 
which  Jesus  died,  may  feel  at  liberty  to  regard  this  re- 
demption with  indifference.  What  admiration  of  this 
great  work  ought  to  fill  our  bosoms,  for  whom  that  aton- 
ing blood  was  spilt !  How  should  our  love  to  God  be 
incited  and  increased,  and  our  confidence  in  him  be 
strengthened,  by  frequent  and  steady  contemplations  of 
this  stupendous  method  of  bis  saving  mercy!  What 
humility  should  cover  us,  when  angels  stoop  to  look  into 
these  things !  and  what  abhorrence  of  our  sins,  that 
thus  crucified  the  Lord  of  men  and  angels !  Can  it  be, 
that  there  are  those  who  despise  that  which  the  holiest 
and  highest  race  of  creatures  thus  view  with  boundless 
admiration?  that  any  turn  away  from  the  crucified 
One  with  shame,  when  angels  behold  him  with  such 
reverence  as  to  veil  their  faces  in  his  presence?  What 
they  behold  with  wonder,  you  may  behold  with  wonder 


OF    THE    UNIVERSE.  359 

also.  What  they  make  the  theme  of  their  more  exalted 
praise,  you  may  make  the  theme  of  your  humbler  song. 
Angels  are  the  inhabitants  of  heaven — the  heaven 
where  the  Saviour  dwells,  the  heaven  of  the  Bible.  Will 
you,  beloved  reader,  ever  dwell  in  that  holy  and  happy 
world  ?  You  may,  perhaps,  imagine  that  there  is  some- 
where in  the  universe  a  place  called  heaven,  where,  if 
you  could  go,  you  would  of  course  be  happy.  Most  cer- 
tainly there  is  such  a  place,  but  it  is  not  impossible  that 
it  is  a  very  different  place  from  what  you  conceive.  If 
you  look  abroad  on  the  world,  and  peradventure  if  you 
look  within  your  own  heart,  you  will  see  how  differently 
men  feel  toward  the  Cross  of  Christ  from  the  sacred  emo- 
tions which  animate  the  bosoms  of  the  angelic  hosts.  To 
be  fitted  for  heaven,  you  must  feel  an  interest  in  the 
thoughts,  affections,  employments,  character  and  society 
which  constitute  its  blessedness.  Ill  heaven,  "they  are 
neither  married  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the 
angels  of  God."  Those  who  feel  no  interest  in  the  Cross, 
are  destitute  of  all  those  traits  of  character  which  assimi- 
late them  to  angels  ;  and  with  their  present  spirit,  next  to 
the  world  of  despair,  heaven  would  be  the  abode  of  in- 
tense misery  to  those  who  take  no  delight  in  the  wonders 
of  redeeming  love.  The  Cross  must  become  the  centre 
of  your  joys,  it  must  have  all  the  glory ;  and  not  until 
you  can  glory  in  it  with  Paul,  and  delight  in  it  with  the 
angels  of  God,  can  you  with  them  come  home  to  Mount 
Zion  with  songs,  and  everlasting  joy  upon  your  head. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

THE   TRIUMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

I  PROCEED  now  to  speak  of  the  triumphs  of  the  Cross. 
Triumph  supposes  a  previous  contest.  Ever  since  that 
revohition  in  heaven,  which  resulted  in  the  revolt  of  the 
rebellious  angels,  the  universe  has  been  the  scene  of  con- 
flict. It  has  been  extended  to  the  heaven  above  us,  and 
to  the  hell  below  us ;  but  the  great  theatre  of  it,  and  its 
more  immediate  arena,  is  the  earth  on  which  we  dwell. 
Here  it  has  been  carried  on  for  six  thousand  years ; 
beginning  with  the  fall  of  man,  and  destined  to  continue 
until  the  final  consummation  of  all  things.  Other  worlds 
feel  an  interest  in  it  for  their  own  sake,  and  for  the  mighty- 
stake  it  involves ;  while  it  is  a  subject  of  deep  interest 
to  all  the  inhabitants  of  this  world,  because  it  carries 
with  it  the  character  and  destiny  of  all  the  generations 
of  men,  from  the  first  creation  onward  to  interminable 
ages. 

It  is  a  controversy  which  is  maintained  Avithin  and 
without  us.  As  maintained  within  us,  it  views  man  as  a 
moral  being,  fallen  from  his  primeval  integrity  and  the 
slave  of  sin,  and  yet  capable  of  recovery,  and  under  a 
dispensation  divinely  fitted  to  restore  him  to  more  than 
the  purity  and  elevation  from  which  he  fell.  It  views 
him  under  the  influence  of  the  two  contending  powers — 
his  own  internal  corruptions,  and    the  truth    and  grace 


THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  THE  CROSS.        361 

tained  by  all  the  powers  of  light  and  darkness,  good  and 
evil,  holiness  and  sin,  in  the  universe.  On  the  one 
hand,  there  is  the  great  foe  of  God  and  man,  the  Chief 
of  the  fallen  angels,  the  Prince  of  devils,  and  the  god  of 
this  world.  Confederate  with  him  are  the  fallen  of  both 
worlds,  living  and  dead,  corporeal  and  uncorporeal,  all 
possessing,  though  in  varied  measures,  essentially  the 
same  spirit,  and  formidable,  not  only  from  their  numbers, 
but  from  their  treachery  and  indefatigable  perseverance. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  God's  incarnate  Son,  who 
hath  on  his  vesture  and  on  his  thigh  a  name  written, 
King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords,  and  combining  the 
wisdom,  the  power,  the  rectitude  and  the  love  of  the 
eternal  Godhead.  In  alliance  with  him  are  the  angels 
who  maintained  their  primeval  integrity ;  an  innumer- 
able company,  who  are  swift  to  do  the  Avill  of  their  divine 
Leader,  hearkening  to  the  voice  of  his  word.  To  these 
are  united  the  saints  in  heaven,  from  the  pardoned  Adam 
down  to  the  last  redeemed  spirit  borne  by  angels  to  Abra- 
ham's bosom — Patriarchs  and  Prophets,  Apostles  and 
Martyrs— godly  men  and  godly  women,  of  every  age  and 
clime,  who,  though  separated  from  these  scenes  of  sense, 
and  gone  from  earth  to  heaven,  put  not  off  their  armor. 
With  these  are  leagued  all  godly  men  in  the  earth,  by 
whatever  name  they  are  called,  wherever  dispersed,  and 
by  whatever  peculiarities  their  moral  training  is  distin- 
guished. All  these  belong  to  the  same  kingdom,  espouse 
the  same  cause,  are  baptized  into  the  same  spirit,  clothed 
with  the  same  divine  panoply,  and  bound  together  by  the 
same  sacramental  oath.  In  this  great  conflict  no  intelli- 
gent being  in  the  universe  remains  neutral ;  and  the 
effort,  the  profession  or  the  pretension  to  be  so,  stigma- 
tizes him  as  an  enemy.  None  can  keep  aloof  from  this 
16 


362        THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  THE  CROSS. 

agitating-  question,  nor  maintain  such  a  position  of  as- 
sumed indifference,  as  will  not,  sooner  or  later,  betray 
their  ill-disguised  hostility. 

The  nature  of  the  conflict  itself  it  is  not  difficult  to 
understand.  The  foundation  of  it  lies  deep  in  the  essen- 
tial difference  of  character  of  those  who  are  engaged  in 
it,  and  which,  so  long  as  this  irreconcilable  spirit  exists, 
perpetuates  the  hostility.  It  is  the  Seed  of  the  woman 
arrayed  against  the  seed  of  the  serpent,  and  he  that  is 
after  the  flesh  opposing  him  who  is  after  the  spirit. 
What  gives  interest  to  this  over  all  other  conflicts  is,  that 
it  is  a  contest  for  principle,  and  involves  the  great  inter- 
ests of  truth  and  holiness,  in  opposition  to  those  of  error 
and  sin.  It  is  a  conflict  of  different  and  opposing  inter- 
ests, deliberately  selected  and  pursued,  and  involving 
the  claims  of  the  divine  government,  the  rights  of  con- 
science, and  the  prevalence  of  holiness  in  this  fallen 
world.  It  is  a  contest  for  ultimate  dominion,  and  involves 
the  question  of  the  divine  supremacy.  Whether  God 
and  his  Christ  shall  reign,  and  his  empire  of  truth,  and 
holiness,  and  joy,  shall  be  triumphant ;  or  whether  the 
devil  and  his  angels  shall  triumph,  and  their  empire  of 
error,  and  sin,  and  woe,  shall  be  extended  over  the  earth, 
is  the  true  question  at  issue.  Never  can  the  Deity  so 
trifle  with  the  interests  of  truth  and  rectitude  as  to  tar- 
nish the  glory  of  his  great  name,  and  abandon  his  throne ; 
and  never  will  the  powers  of  darkness  submit  to  his 
dominion,  or  cease  from 

" their  ambitious  aim 


Against  the  throne  and  monarchy  of  God." 

Hence  the  collision — collision  to  the  last ;  while  upon  its 
final  issues  are  dependent  the  glory,  honor  and  immor- 


THE    TRIUIIPHS    OF    THE    CROSS.  353 

tality  of  all  the  hol}^  and  virtuous,  and  the  shame,  igno- 
miny and  death  of  the  vicious  and  unholy. 

The  means  by  which  this  conflict  is  sustained  are 
sufficiently  indicative  of  the  character  of  those  who 
employ  them,  and  the  ends  they  aim  at  securing-.  On 
the  one  hand,  they  partake  of  that  fickle  and  changeful 
policy  which  the  subtil  enemy,  fortified  by  long  experi- 
ence, and  expert  in  deeds  of  wickedness,  knows  so  well 
how  to  employ.  It  is  a  system  of  stratagem,  sometimes 
making  use  of  all  the  powers  of  human  reason,  elevated 
and  furnished  as  they  were  in  the  Augustan  and  Athe- 
nian ages,  and  at  others  throwing  a  pall  of  ignorance 
over  the  human  mind  so  deep  and  heavy  as  to  be  for 
centuries  impervious.  Sometimes  it  is  persuasion  and 
smiles :  generations  become  giddy  with  pride,  and  are 
flattered  in  crowds  into  the  broad  way  that  leads  to  death. 
Sometimes  it  is  power  and  coercion ;  and  every  engine 
of  torture  which  malice  can  invent,  or  cruelty  employ,  is 
made  use  of  to  shut  men  out  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Sometimes  it  is  by  the  enactments  of  civil  government, 
when  the  devil  enters  into  the  hearts  of  princes  and  legisla- 
tors ;  and  sometimes  it  is  by  governments  that  are  ecclesi- 
astical, when  pontiffs,  and  cardinals,  and  bishops  are  the 
selected  agents  of  his  infuriate  malignity.  Sometimes  it 
is  by  a  corrupted  church  and  a  corrupted  ministry ;  so 
that  the  professed  standard-bearers  in  the  camp  of  Israel 
are  its  betrayers  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Some- 
times it  is  by  error  under  the  guise  of  truth,  and  so  art- 
fully and  indefatigably  disseminated,  as  "  to  deceive,  if 
it  were  possible,  the  very  elect."  Sometimes  it  is  by 
peace,  and  sometimes  by  war :  the  former  enriching  the 
nations,  and  enervating  them  by  its  luxury,  and  pros- 
trating them  at  the  shrine  of  Mammon  ;  the  latter  intro- 
ducing violence,  blood,  rapine,  fraud,  and  every  species 


364  THE    TRIUMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

of  crime,  and  sweeping  its  millions  into  eternity,  without 
God  and  without  hope.  Sometimes  it  is  by  the  debasing 
passions  of  men,  and  sometimes  by  their  criminal  thought- 
lessness. Sometimes  it  is  by  infatuating  the  old,  and 
sometimes  by  corrupting  the  young.  No  doctrine  is 
better  understood  by  the  great  adversary,  than  that 
"great  effects  result  from  little  causes."  A  little  matter 
may  give  a  fresh  impulse  to  the  strong  and  downward 
course  of  human  depravity.  The  day  is  coming,  when 
it  will  be  seen,  that  "  he  who  goeth  about  like  a  roaring 
lion,  seeking  whom  he  may  devour,"  has  left  nothing 
untouched  in  the  world  of  matter  or  of  mind,  to  which 
he  could  have  access,  and  by  which  he  could  exert  an 
agency  ruinous  to  the  souls  of  men,  or  insure  himself 
ever  so  partial  a  victory.  If,  from  this  dark  view,  we 
advert  to  the  means  by  which  the  interests  of  holiness 
are  promoted,  and  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  estab- 
lished in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  extended  in  the  world, 
we  shall  find  them  of  a  very  opposite  character,  and 
worthy  of  their  Author.  They  are  powerful,  but  not 
numerous;  nor  are  they  intricate  and  involved,  but 
simple,  and  a  child  may  understand  them.  They  have 
no  malice  to  gratify,  no  wrongs  which  they  seek  to  avenge. 
They  have  no  snares,  and  no  stratagem ;  no  art  and  chi- 
canery. They  seek  no  concealment,  but  are  all  patent, 
and  lie  open  to  the  face  of  day.  They  are  wise,  because 
they  are  devised  by  Him  who  has  studied  the  Imman 
heart ;  they  are  unwearied  and  insinuating,  because  he 
cannot  consent  to  lose  his  object ;  and  they  are  ever  bold 
and  watchful,  because  he  knows  the  enemy  he  has  to  en- 
counter. They  are  all  comprised  in  one  single  word — the 
CROSS— the  "  v/ord  of  their  testimony  and  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb."  They  are  THE  TRUTH  AND  THE  LOVE 
OF  THE  CROSS.     If  you  look  at  the  varied  instrumen- 


THE    TRIUMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS.  365 

talities  employed  by  the  King  of  Zion,  you  will  find  them 
summed  up  in  these.  They  are,  in  one  word,  the  Bible, 
the  unadulterated  Bible — the  Bible  recognized  as  the  only 
infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice.  And  the  Bible  is 
full  of  the  Cross.  Its  living  ministry — its  pure,  and  faith- 
ful, and  unwearied  ministry,  watching  for  souls,  as  they 
that  must  give  account — "know  nothing  save  Jesus  Christ 
and  him  crucified."  Its  holy  Sabbath— returning  weekly 
in  its  attractive  stillness,  conducting  its  unnumbered 
multitudes  to  the  house  of  God,  vocal  with  his  mercy  and 
his  praises,  fragrant  with  his  ordinances,  and  sacred  to  his 
presence  and  glory — savors  of  nothing  so  much  as  the  Cross. 
The  name  of  Jesus  gives  to  all  its  services  their  peculiar 
importance,  their  unutterable  desires,  their  most  sacred 
delights.  Its  social  relations,  and  its  religious  nurture  of 
the  young,  draw  forth  the  ardor  and  tenderness  of  the 
heart  toward  him  who  was  crucified,  because  that  hal- 
lowed circle  so  often  go  and  stand  together  at  the  Cross, 
and  because  the  Cross  sheds  its  fragrance  there,  and  minds 
born  in  sin  there  receive  the  seal  of  the  Cross  and  its 
hope  of  immortality.  It  is  the  Cross,  and  only  the 
Cross,  that  imparts  to  all  these  their  power.  This  is 
the  banner  which  the  God  of  heaven  unfurls  in  the 
sight  of  the  nations,  and  under  which  he  goes  forth  to 
oppose  all  the  powers  of  darkness,  and  to  subjugate  the 
world.  The  Saviour  never  uttered  a  more  animating 
sentence  than  when  he  said,  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up 
from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me."  "  The 
hour  was  come  in  which  the  Son  of  Man  should  be 
glorified  !"  The  faith  of  the  Gentiles  should  glorify  him, 
even  though  he  should  be  rejected  by  the  Jews.  The 
seed  was  just  about  to  be  buried  in  the  heart  of  the  earth, 
that  should  produce  an  abundant  harvest.  He  had  just 
been  told  of  the  accession  of  the  Gentiles  to  his  kingdom, 


366  THE    TRIUMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

and  the  announcement  kindled  a  glow  of  anticipation  in 
his  bosom,  and  he  seemed  to  be  already  triumphing  in 
the  future  conquests  of  his  grace  and  truth.  "  Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you,"  said  he,  "  except  a  corn  of 
wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth  alone ;  but 
if  it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit.'^  The  character 
he  had  exhibited,  and  the  miracles  he  had  wrought,  con- 
vincing as  they  were  that  he  came  forth  from  God,  were 
not  invested  with  the  power  to  be  ascribed  to  the  death 
to  which  he  was  ordained.  They  could  not  speak  the 
language  of  his  great  sacrifice  ;  they  did  not  utter  the 
truths  that  were  to  be  "mighty  through  God  ;"  they  did 
not  possess  the  influence  and  attraction  of  the  Cross. 
The  Cross  was  to  be  elevated  from  the  high  places  of 
the  earth,  that  the  people  might  know  where  the  Prince 
and  Savioiir  is  to  be  found,  and  flock  to  his  standard. 
Whatever  interest  men  have  had  in  the  common  salvation, 
whatever  interest  they  have  now,  and  will  hereafter  enjoy, 
is  to  be  attributed  to  the  attraction  of  the  Cross.  It  shall 
not  triumph  without  a  struggle,  nor  without  a  host  of 
enemies  uniting  their  forces  against  it,  and  disputing 
every  inch  of  the  conquered  territory  ;  but  it  shall  be 
ultimately  triumphant,  and  possess  the  earth. 

The  cause  of  which  the  Cross  is  the  standard  is  the  cause 
of  truth  and  righteousness.  It  is  a  good  cause,  and  the 
only  good  cause  in  the  world ;  and  if  the  God  of  heaven 
is  the  friend  of  truth  and  righteousness,  it  must  prevail. 
All  holy  beings  in  the  universe  are  its  supporters.  God 
created  the  world  for  it ;  for  it  he  governs  the  world  which 
he  made ;  and  for  it  he  gave  his  Son  to  die.  To  advance 
it,  his  Son  descended  from  heaven,  and  his  Spirit  dwells 
with  men.  Whoever  they  be,  and  in  whatever  world 
they  dwell,  who  oppose  such  interests,  engage  in  the  dis- 
astrous enterprise  with  misgivings  of  heart,  with  an  em- 


THE    TRIUMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS.  357 

barrassed  judgment,  an  oppressed  conscience,  and  more 
fears  than  hopes ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  friends 
and  supporters  of  such  a  cause  espouse  it  with  confidence, 
and  with  a  tranquillity  of  mind,  and  a  firmness  of  pur- 
pose, which  nothing  can  disturb,  and  which  their  faith  in 
God  and  in  their  own  ultimate  success  invigorates  and 
emboldens.  The  history  of  our  world  shows  deeds  of 
noble  daring  achieved  by  faith  in  the  Cross.  There  is  a 
mighty  power  in  the  Cross  to  concentrate  the  affections, 
and  combine  the  efforts,  of  the  friends  of  truth  and  right- 
eousness, even  though  they  were  but  few.  The  opposers 
of  the  Cross  are  a  discordant  multitude,  without  harmony 
of  sentiment  or  affection.  Its  friends  are  one,  and  their 
union  is  their  strength.  The  three  hundred  that  lapped 
under  Gideon,  were  more  potent  than  the  mighty  hosts 
of  Midian  and  Amalek.  The  little  band  of  twelve  apostles 
had  more  power  over  the  minds  of  men  than*  all  the 
forces  of  Jewish  and  Gentile  unbelief.  The  persecuted 
Albigenses  could  not  be  crushed  even  by  the  power  of 
Rome  ;  while  the  very  valleys  that  were  drenched  with 
their  blood,  became  the  scenes  of  their  triumph.  It  was 
confidence  in  their  cause  that  nerved  the  hearts  of  the 
noble  Reformers,  and  gave  them  the  victory  when  the 
powers  of  earth  and  hell  rose  up  against  them.  The 
cause  of  truth  and  righteousness  must  prevail.  Like  the 
ark  of  God  when  it  was  borne  by  ancient  Israel,  the  very 
excellence  of  the  Cross  is  sure  to  carry  ultimate  confusion 
and  dismay  into  the  camp  of  its  enemies. 

There  is  also,  in  the  next  place,  an  adajJtction  in  the 
Cross  to  impress  and  subdue  the  hearts  of  its  enemies. 
Such  are  the  elements  of  Christianity,  that  when  they 
once  come  in  contact  with  the  hearts  of  men,  the  one 
or  the  other  must  be  subdued.  They  are  so  diametri- 
cally opposite  in  their  nature  and  tendencies,  that  they 


368        THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  THE  CROSS. 

cannot  come  in  collision  without  producing  the  most 
sensible  effects.  In  this,  as  well  as  other  particulars,  the 
relig-ion  of  the  Cross  is  different  from  all  other  religions, 
falling  in  as  they  do  with  the  natural  inclinations  of  men, 
and,  instead  of  disputing  the  empire  with  unhallowed 
passions,  yielding  to  them  that  empire  without  restraint. 
The  Cross  directs  its  influences  to  the  sources  of  human 
iniquity,  and  by  its  purity  and  holiness  would  fain  estab- 
lish its  entire  dominion  over  the  interior  man.  It  con- 
siders nothing  accomplished  until  it  sets  up  the  living 
God  in  the  place  of  every  idol,  and  at  the  same  time 
disrobes  the  soul  of  all  its  visible  and  external  badges  of 
loyalty  to  another  master.  This  is  its  great  object ;  and 
though,  in  securing  this,  it  meets  with  its  greatest  resist- 
ance, in  this  very  conflict  consists  its  greatest  power.  Its 
truths  are  mighty,  because  they  are  truths,  and  because 
they  relate  to  subjects  of  vast  extent,  of  the  highest  im- 
portance, and  such  as  the  human  mind,  when  once 
arrested,  feels  a  deep  interest  in  investigating.  Not  a 
few  of  them  are  unwelcome  ;  but  it  is  an  interesting  fact 
that  some  of  the  most  humbling  and  unwelcome  truths  the 
Gospel  reveals,  are  those  which  take  the  deepest  hold  of 
the  inquiring  mind.  The  evidence  that  these  truths  are 
from  God  is  such  as  no  ingenuous  mind  can  resist.  They 
are  so  supported  by  the  divine  authority,  that  they  come 
home  with  amazing  power.  They  are  the  truths  which 
it  behoves  men  to  know,  because  they  publish  the  laws 
by  which  they  must  be  governed,  the  apostacy  which  is 
their  ruin,  the  redemption  which  is  their  recovery,  the 
heaven  which  they  hope  for,  and  the  hell  they  fear.  No 
truth  can  be  compared  with  the  truth  of  the  Cross,  for 
its  intrinsic  excellence,  its  binding  obligations,  its  fitness 
to  the  lost  condition  of  man,  or  its  effectiveness  in  fixing 
his  everlasting  condition  beyond  the  grave.     They  are 


THE    TRIUMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS.  359 

not  legendary  tales,  nor  the  dreams  of  false  prophets,  nor 
the  opinions,  nor  traditions,  nor  commandments  of  men  ; 
but  truth,  so  copious  and  complete,  that  nothing  is  left 
for  men  to  desire  to  know,  and  so  authoritative,  that  when 
they  come  within  the  sphere  of  its  influence,  they  them- 
selves see  that  they  must  yield  to  it,  or  die  in  the  conflict. 
Its  ministers  may  be  unfaithful,  but  the  Cross  is  faithful ; 
it  holds  men  to  the  alternative  of  submission  and  life,  or 
revolt  and  perdition.  It  is  a  very  interesting  crisis  in  a 
man's  history,  when  his  understanding  is  controlled  by 
the  truth  of  the  Cross.  His  understanding  is  the  avenue 
to  his  conscience  ;  and  when  reason  and  conscience  unite 
in  demanding  his  confidence  for  the  Son  of  God,  he  is  a 
miserable  man  until  he  becomes  a  Christian.  Truth  and 
love  have  mighty  power  to  break  the  chains  of  sin — to 
beat  down  the  strongholds  of  the  powers  of  darkness — to 
triumph  over  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places — to  take 
the  prey  from  the  mighty,  and  rescue  the  captive  from 
the  terrible.  Nor  let  it  be  forgotten,  that  this  is  an  adap- 
tation which  God  himself  honors.  While  he  "will 
destroy  the  wisdom  of  the  wise,  and  bring  to  nothing  the 
understanding  of  the  prudent,"  he  makes  the  Cross 
"  the  power  of  God  to  salvation."  No  matter  what  it  is 
that  advances  to  the  place  of  the  Cross — whether  it  be 
the  philosophy  of  the  world,  or  the  systems  of  Paganism, 
or  false  religions  baptized  by  the  name  of  a  rational 
Christianity — he  pours  contempt  upon  them  all,  and  puts 
honor  only  on  the  Cross.  "  Christ  crucified,"  though 
"  to  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  and  to  the  Greeks  fool- 
ishness, is  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God." 
Heaven  shouted  when  it  was  first  announced ;  earth  was 
astonished  ;  and  in  a  little  while  heaven  shall  shout 
again,  and  in  greater  raptures,  "  the  whole  earth  is 
full  of  his  glory." 
16* 


370  THE    TRIUMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

Take,  now,  a  rapid  glance  at  the  actual  triumphs  of 
the  Cross,  from  the  first  promulgation  of  Christianity,  to 
the  present  time.  From  the  treatment  Avhich  the  Cross 
of  Christ  has  received  in  this  apostate  world,  it  would 
sometimes  seem  that  its  ultimate  triumphs  were  hopeless. 
Infidels  have  inquired,  with  an  air  of  victory,  "  Whence 
is  it,  if  Christianity  is  the  religion  revealed  from  heaven, 
that  it  has  been  diffused  over  so  small  a  portion  of  the 
earth?  Why  is  it  that  Paganism  and  Mohammedanism 
occupy  four-fifths  of  this  globe,  and  the  remaining 
one-fifth  alone  is  occupied  by  Christianity?  Why  does 
the  Gospel  spread  so  slowly  at  the  present  day,  so  that 
now,  after  the  lapse  of  eighteen  centuries,  so  large  a  part 
of  the  world  are  strangers  to  its  power?"  It  were  enough 
for  us,  in  replying  to  this  objection,  to  sa}',  that  the  ways 
of  God  arc  inscrutable  to  us,  and  that  while  it  may  not 
be  possible  for  us  to  trace  all  the  reasons  w^hy  the  light 
of  truth  is,  for  so  long  a  period,  hidden  from  some  of  the 
nations,  it  is  but  the  commencement  of  its  triumphs  which 
has  been  hitherto  witnessed.  The  plans  of  the  Deity  are 
large  and  vast,  and  none  of  them  are  accomplished  in  a 
moment,  nor  without  that  preparation  and  gradual  pro- 
gress which  most  significantly  indicate  the  wisdom  of 
their  Author.  God  has  seen  fit  to  employ  human  means 
for  effecting  this  great  design;  nor  is  it  any  impeach- 
ment of  his  character,  that  he  has  not  interposed  for  the 
diffusion  of  the  Gospel  by  a  series  of  miracles.  Nor  is  it 
to  be  forgotten  that  the  religion  of  the  Cross  has,  in  all 
its  progress,  contended  with  obstacles  with  which  no  other 
religion  has  contended,  and  has  been  extended  by  means 
that  have  had  no  alliance  with  the  power  and  authority 
by  which  other  religions  have  had  access  to  the  nations. 
Other  religions  have  found  abettors  in  the  prejudices,  the 
vices,  the  follies,  the  ignorance,  the  delusions  of  men ; 


THE    TRIUMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS.  371 

while  the  religion  of  the  Cross  has  been  opposed  to  them 
all.     Other  religions  have  been  propagated  by  the  power 
of  the  sword;  the  religion  of  the  Cross  has  been  extended 
while  the  power  of  the  sword  has  been  wielded  against 
it.     Other  religions  have  been  extended  by  rapine  and 
plunder  ;  the  religion  of  the  Cross  by  the  conversion  of 
those  who  "  took  joyfully  the  spoiling  of  their  goods  " 
for  the  name  of  Jesus.     Other  religions  have  been  ex- 
tended by  the  authority  of  human  governments  ;   the 
religion  of  the  Cross  not  only  without  this  adventitious 
aid,  but  in  the  face  of  all  law,  and  in  defiance  of  magis- 
tracy and  empire.     It  has  waded  through  seas  of  blood, 
walked  through  the  fires  of  persecution,  and  sealed  its 
testimony  in  the  dungeon  and  at  the  stake,  and  amid  all 
the  wanton  barbarity  of  suffering.     It  has  been  humble, 
peaceable,   laborious,  patient,  prayerful;    it    has  been 
without  wealth,  without  power,  without  popularity,  and 
without  the  honor  that  cometh  from  men  ;  and  yet  has 
its  progress  been  so  successful,  as  to  furnish   sufficient 
evidence  of  its  triumphs.     It  commenced  its  career  with 
the  death  of  its  Founder,  and  when  he  who  was  crucified 
on  Calvary,  and  rose  again  from  the  dead,  had  but  twelve 
men  for  his  followers.     But  its  attraction  was  soon  felt 
througliout  the  world.     Its  first  triumphs  were  over  the 
unbelieving  Jews,  violent  and  uncompromising  in   their 
hostility  to  the  Christian  faith,  from  the  highest  seat  of 
magistracy  in  Jerusalem  down  to  the   lowest  publican 
who  sat  at  the  receipt  of  customs  ;  yet  did  it  establish  its 
churches  throughout  Judea,  Galilee  and  Samaria,  while 
its  opposers  were  smitten  by  the  wrath  of  heaven,  their 
proud  city  destroyed,  and  themselves  scattered  over  the 
earth,  a  hissing  and  by-word  among  the  nations.     Its 
next  triumphs  were  in  Pagan  Rome;  at  that  period  the 
colossal  power  of  the  earth,  stretching  itself  from  the 


372  THE    TRIUIMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

Straits  of  Gibraltar  to  the  Caspian  Sea,  covering-  all 
Europe,  extending-  itself  into  Africa  and  the  South  of 
Britain,  and  uniting  its  pride  of  learning-  and  science,  the 
influence  of  its  philosopliy  and  the  power  of  its  emperors, 
to  exterminate  the  Gospel.  Yet,  within  thirty  years  after 
the  crucifixion,  their  own  accomplished  historian,  Tacitus, 
informs  us  there  was  an  inuuense  number  of  Christians 
in  the  very  capital.  From  this  centre  Christianity  spread 
through  the  empire,  ascended  even  to  the  throne,  put  to 
silence  the  wisdom  of  ages,  emptied  the  schools  of  phi- 
losophy, closed  the  temples  of  Paganism,  and  while  it 
put  out  the  fire  on  their  altars,  enkindled  in  its  place  the 
flame  of  its  own  spiritual  sacrifices.  From  Rome  it  was 
diffused  everywhere,  and,  even  before  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  had  found  its  way  to  Scythia  on  the  north, 
India  on  the  east,  Gaul  and  Egypt  on  the  west,  and 
Ethiopia  on  the  south.  Seven  of  its  regular  churches 
were  established  in  Asia  Minor,  others  in  Greece,  and 
others  in  Britain,  before  half  a  century  had  passed  away 
from  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era.  As  time 
rolled  on,  it  was  still  extended  farther  and  wider  over  the 
earth.  The  kings  of  the  earth  beheld  in  its  silent  pro- 
gress the  overthrow  of  those  systems  of  superstition  which 
upheld  their  thrones  ;  but  in  vain  did  they  take  counsel 
against  it.  In  vain  did  mercenary  priests  oppose  it,  be- 
cause they  saw  in  it  the  certain  diminution  of  those 
resources  by  which  they  had  become  enriched  at  the 
expense  of  the  people.  In  vain  did  philosophers  oppose 
it,  because  they  saw  in  it  the  contempt  of  all  their  proud 
science.  One  tedious  and  bloody  century  after  another 
passed  away,  inciting  against  it  the  pride,  the  fanaticism 
and  the  malignity  that  were  eager  to  exhaust  themselves 
on  its  peaceable  teachers  and  harmless  followers ;  but 
it  triumphed.     And  when  that  dark  night  of  a  thousand 


THE    TRIUMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS.  373 

years  overshadowed  the  earth,  during  which  it  reposed 
amid  the  wealth  and  hixury  of  princes,  and  lived  only 
amid  ceremonies  and  observances  that  well  nigh  extin- 
guished its  spiritual  existence ;  it  at  length  awoke  healthy 
and  vigorous  as  in  the  days  of  its  youth,  because  it  car- 
ried within  its  own  bosom  indestructible  elements,  and 
was  associated  with  the  power  of  its  glorified  Author. 
And  when  assailed,  as  it  subsequently  was,  by  the  un- 
settling power  of  an  infidel  age,  and  the  pens  of  the 
learned  and  the  tongues  of  tlie  eloquent  beset  it  on  every 
side,  it  gloriously  survived  this  great  crisis  of  its  conilicts, 
and  entered  upon  that  period  of  spiritual  influences  which 
has  not  ceased  to  mark  its  progress.  The  boasting  ene- 
mies of  the  Cross  have  passed  away  like  the  chaff  of  the 
smnmer  threshing-floor,  but  the  Cross  is  still  lifted  up. 
Empires  have  been  turned  upside  down,  cities  have  been 
obliterated  and  forgotten;  but  wherever  the  Cross  has 
been  erected,  the  wilderness  blossoms  as  the  rose,  and 
the  solitary  place  has  become  glad  for  its  tidings  of  great 
joy.  Commerce  has  been  turned  from  its  ancient  chan- 
nels, to  give  free  course  to  the  word  of  this  salvation, 
borne  on  every  breeze,  protected  by  every  government, 
facilitated  and  propelled  by  every  improvement  in  the 
arts  to  the  distant  quarters  of  the  globe.  Never  was  the 
Holy  Bible  so  widely  diffused  as  it  is  now.  Never  were 
the  missionaries  of  the  Cross  so  extensively  scattered  over 
heathen  lands  as  in  the  day  in  which  we  live.  Never 
were  so  many  sanctuaries  open ;  and  never,  with  every 
returning  day  of  the  Son  of  Man,  were  there  so  many  of 
his  ministers  proclaiming  the  riches  of  his  grace,  and 
never  such  untold  multitudes  assembled  to  listen  to 
its  wondrous  message.  The  wide  circle  of  the  earth 
furnishes  no  religion  that  is  now  pushing  its  conquests 
with  half  the  success  that  attends  the  doctrine  of  the 


374  THE    TRIUMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS. 

Cross.  Every  other  religion  wanes,  and  the  Cross  alone 
is  crescent.  Now,  after  the  expiration  of  eighteen  cen- 
turies of  conflict,  of  trial,  of  darkness,  there  is  probably 
more  living,  active  piety  among  men,  than  has  ever  been 
found  since  the  risen  Redeemer  ascended  into  heaven  and 
gave  his  Gospel  to  the  world. 

And  what  has  been  thus  begun  shall  be  gloriously  con- 
summated. The  past  is  a  sure  pledge  of  the  future,  and 
that  pledge  is  made  sure  by  the  promise  of  God.  There 
have  been  seasons  when,  to  human  view,  it  appeared 
that  the  issue  of  this  conflict  would  be  in  favor  of  the 
adversary.  The  Seed  of  the  woman  and  the  seed  of  the 
serpent  alternately  have  had  the  advantage.  The  golden 
age  of  Christianity,  though  it  may  have  dawned,  is  yet 
obscured  with  many  a  cloud.  It  is  even  now  an  age  of 
worldliness,  of  great  indifference  and  apathy  to  the  things 
that  are  not  seen,  and  of  deep  jealousy  and  mournful 
divisions  in  the  Christian  Church.  It  is  an  age  in  which 
the  pure  truth  of  the  Gospel  is  more  or  less  corrupted  ;  an 
age  of  extravagance,  and  an  age  of  unchristian  exclu- 
siveness,  and  useless  discussions  about  external  forms  of 
polity,  and  endless  genealogies,  to  the  neglect  of  the 
great  doctrines,  and  motives,  and  obligations  of  the  Cross. 
It  is  an  age  in  which  the  Man  of  Sin  is  again  rearing 
his  dragon  head,  and  vomiting  out  his  waters,  to  chase 
the  "man-child"  into  the  wilderness.  But  though,  to 
the  eye  of  a  doubting  faith,  success  seems  to  hover,  now 
over  one  side  of  the  combatants,  and  now  over  the  other, 
there  is  no  uncertainty  as  to  the  question  on  Avhich  side 
it  is  to  light.  The  promise  has  gone  forth,  "  It  shall 
bruise  thy  Aead;"  the  only  poor  promise  to  the  foe  is, 
"  Thou  shalt  bruise  his  heel.''  There  is  nothing  the 
adversary  so  much  hates  and  fears  as  the  Cross.  "  No 
weapon  formed   against  it   shall   prosper."     He  whose 


THE    TRIUMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS.  375 

veracity  is  sure  has  pronounced  the  decree,  that  the  cru- 
cified One  "  shall  reign  till  all  enemies  are  put  under  his 
feet,"  and  that  "  the  kingdom,  and  the  greatness  of  the 
kingdom  under  the  whole  heaven,  shall  be  given  to  the 
saints  of  the  Most  High  God."  The  solemn  oath  stands 
on  record  in  his  word,  "  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord,  the 
whole  earth  shall  be  filled  with  my  glory  !"  All  "  the 
ends  of  the  earth  shall  remember  and  turn  unto  the 
Lord,  and  all  the  kindreds  of  the  nations  shall  worship 
before  him."  The  time  is  appointed  when  Satan,  the 
great  instigator  of  the  powers  of  darkness,  shall  be  bound, 
and  a  seal  set  upon  his  prison ;  when  the  idolatry  of  the 
heathen  shall  cease,  and  the  "gods  that  have  not  made 
the  heavens  and  the  earth,  even  they  shall  perish  from 
the  earth,  and  from  under  these  heavens."  The  blind- 
ness of  the  long-rejected  Jews  shall  yet  be  dissipated, 
and  the  veil  that  is  upon  their  hearts  shall  be  taken  away. 
The  delusive  dreams  of  the  Mohammedan  imposture  shall 
vanish.  The  hierarchy  of  Rome,  with  all  of  other  names 
that  bears  its  image  and  breathes  its  spirit,  shall  be  over- 
thrown. Infidelity  will  stop  her  mouth,  and  philosophy, 
falsely  so  called,  shall  pass  away  into  oblivion.  The 
corruptions  of  Christendom  shall  be  forgotten,  and  he  who 
''  sits  as  a  refiner  and  a  purifier  of  silver  "  shall  purge- 
away  all  its  dross.  Oppression  and  bondage  shall  cease ; 
and  he  who  shall  "judge  the  poor  of  the  people,  and 
save  the  children  of  the  needy,"  shall  "  break  in  pieces 
the  oppressor."  Wars  shall  come  to  an  end  from  under 
the  face  of  the  whole  heaven ;  the  storm  of  contention 
shall  cease  ;  the  tumult  of  battle  shall  be  heard  no  more  ; 
and  there  shall  be  nothing  to  hurt  or  destroy  in  all  God's 
holy  mountain.  The  plenitude  of  divine  influences  shall 
descend  like  rain,  and  "judgment  shall  remain  in  the  wil- 
derness, and  righteousness  in  the.  fruitful  field."     Like 


376        THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  THE  CROSS. 

the  waters  that  went  forth  from  under  the  temple,  know- 
ledge and  holiness  shall  flow  in  rivers  over  the  earth  ;  and 
as  the  sun  of  nature,  while  it  leads  on  the  seasons  and 
regulates  the  year,  alike  imparts  vigor  to  the  forest  and 
fragrance  and  beauty  to  the  humblest  flower  that  opens 
in  its  beam,  so  will  the  Sun  of  Rrighteousness  diff'use  his 
rays  over  every  department  of  society,  and  the  entire 
economy  of  human  aflfairs.  Like  the  branch  which  the 
Prophet  cast  into  the  waters  of  Marah,  the  Gospel  shall 
neutralize  the  sources  of  misery,  and  purify  the  fountains 
of  joy.  The  religion  of  the  Cross  will  reign  triumph- 
antly over  the  world ;  and  there  shall  be  one  Lord,  and 
his  name  One.  The  kingdom  of  darkness  well  knows 
the  efficacy  of  the  Cross.  They  have  watched  its  influ- 
ence from  the  hour  when  it  made  a  show  of  them  openly 
on  Calvary ;  they  are  watching  it  still,  and  will  hereafter 
observe  it,  not  so  much  with  their  present  jealousy,  as 
Avith  everlasting  despair.  These  opposing  hosts,  that  are 
now  alternately  advancing  and  retreating,  now  triumph- 
ing and  now  melting  away,  will  ere  long  come  to  the 
last  conflict.  The  mighty  catastrophe  of  this  wonder- 
ful arrangement  for  the  salvation  of  men,  so  early  pre- 
dicted and  so  eagerly  looked  for,  shall  be  developed,  and 
heaven  and  hell  shall  stand  alike  the  memorials  of  the 
divine  mercy  to  its  friends,  and,  to  its  enemies,  of  the 
divine  justice.  The  voice  of  the  archangel  and  the  trump 
of  God  shall  sound.  The  crucified  One  shall  come  in 
the  glory  of  his  Father  and  of  the  holy  angels,  and  the 
holy  tribes  shall  be  gathered  together  and  caught  up  to 
meet  the  Lord  in  the  air.  All  characters  shall  be  then 
tried,  all  hearts  revealed,  and  the  final  sentence  shall  go 
forth.  Then  the  triumphs  of  the  Cross  shall  be  com- 
pleted. And  when  it  is  thus  lifted  up,  with  it  the  hands, 
and  hearts,  and  heads  of  the  redeemed  shall  be  lifted  up, 


THE    TRIUMPHS    OF    THE    CROSS.  377 

and  tlie  hands,  and  hearts,  and  heads  of  the  unbelieving- 
shall  be  bowed  down,  and  "  the  Lord  alone  shall  be 
exalted  in  that  day." 

Such  have  been,  such  are,  such  will  be,  the  triumphs 
of  the  Cross.  It  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvelous 
in  our  eyes.  Great  is  the  mystery  of  God  and  godliness. 
It  is  not  the  wisdom  of  the  created,  but  of  the  uncreated 
One.  It  is  not  the  power  of  man,  but  the  mighty  power 
of  God.  It  is  the  Cross — the  narrative  of  the  Cross — the 
truth  of  the  Cross — the  love  of  the  Cross — the  security  of 
the  Cross — the  holiness  of  the  Cross — the  power  of  the 
Cross — the  wonders  of  the  Cross — the  Cross  triumphant. 
And  now,  the  solemn  question  is  submitted  to  the  con- 
science of  every  reader,  whether  he  will  be  for  Christ,  or 
against  him  1  I  know  the  decision  of  your  reason  and 
conscience,  and  stand  in  doubt  only  of  the  decision  of 
your  heart.  I  know  that  the  Cross  will  be  triumphant, 
and  am  solicitous  that  you  should  enlist  under  the  ban- 
ners of  the  all-conquering  Prince,  and  reign  with  the 
Captain  of  your  salvation  in  his  eternal  kingdom.  The 
cause  is  too  momentous  in  itself,  and  too  greatly  fraught 
with  consequences  of  everlasting  interest  to  your  own 
soul,  to  allow  of  any  farther  indecision.  Persist  no 
longer  in  contending  with  him  who  is  God  over  all  blessed 
forevermore.  Break,  oh,  break  away  from  those  who  are 
in  arms  against  their  gracious  Saviour,  and  let  the  world 
see  that  the  cause  of  truth  and  righteousness,  the  Cross 
of  the  Redeemer,  have  found  in  yoic  one  more  advocate 
and  friend. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

THE    sinner's    excuses    REFUTED    BY   THE    CROSS. 

God  has  constituted  men  capable  of  judging  what  is 
right,  not  only  in  respect  to  other  men,  but  in  respect  to 
their  own  character  and  conduct.  He  often  appeals  to 
their  own  judgment  and  conscience,  whether  the  course 
they  are  pursuing  is  right,  and  can  be  defended  by  them- 
selves ;  and  if  they  think  it  can,  he  challenges  them  to 
make  their  pretensions  good. 

Are  there  none  of  my  readers  to  whom  such  an  appeal 
as  this  may  be  addressed  with  strong  propriety  ?  Has  not 
the  God  of  heaven  revealed  to  you  the  greatness  and  good- 
ness of  his  own  infinite  nature,  called  upon  you  to  give 
him  your  hearts,  and  become  reconciled  to  him  through 
the  great  atonement  of  his  Son  1  The  voice  of  the  Cross 
to  all  who  reject  its  great  salvation  is,  "  Turn  ye,  turn  ye, 
why  will  ye  die '?"  "-Produce  your  cause,  saith  the  Lord  ; 
bring  forth  y ouv  stro7ig  reasons,  saith  the  God  of  Jacob." 
"Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  me?"  You  have 
placed  yourselves  in  a  false  and  untenable  position,  and 
cannot  defend  your  present  course  of  conduct,  save  by 
reasons  that  carry  with  them  their  own  refutation. 

It  is  from  a  conviction  that  nothing  more  is  necessary, 
in  order  to  show  the  unreasonableness  of  the  course  the 
unbeliever  is  pursuing,  than  for  him  to  produce  and  con- 
sider the  strong  reasons  that  are  given  in  defence  of  it, 


EXCUSES  REFUTED  BY  THE  CROSS.      379 

that  I  venture  to  hope  for  his  serious  attention,  while  I 
state  and  consider  some  of  these  reasons  in  the  present 
chapter.  And  let  his  prayer — let  our  united  prayers — 
ascend  to  the  God  of  grace,  that  these  reasons  may  be 
so  considered,  that  he  may  see  that  he  is  without  excuse 
before  God,  and  has  no  time  to  lose  in  escaping-  from 
these  delusions,  and  laying  hold  of  the  hope  set  before 
him  ! 

There  is  a  class  of  persons,  who  assign  as  a  reason  for 
their  not  becoming  Christians,  that  they  are  not  so  well 
satisfied  as  they  desire  to  be  of  the  great  and  fundamental 
truths  which  the  Cross  reveals.  They  do  not  question  that 
the  Bible  is  the  word  of  God,  and  contains  great  and 
essential  doctrines — doctrines  which  constitute  the  essence 
of  divine  revelation ;  that  are  necessary  to  its  very  exist- 
ence ;  and  that  must  be  believed,  loved  and  obeyed,  in 
order  to  salvation.  But  they  are  not  decided  as  to  what 
these  doctrines  are.  They  tell  you  that  men  have  differed 
in  their  views  of  them,  and  differ  still ;  and  it  ought  not 
to  be  expected  that  they  should  commit  themselves  pre- 
maturely upon  subjects  of  such  vital  importance.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  this  is  one  of  the  reasons  which  act  upon 
a  certain  class  of  minds,  in  producing  hesitation  and  delay 
in  the  all-important  concern  of  personal  religion.  We 
do  not  deny  that  great  importance  is  to  be  attached  to  the 
belief  of  the  truth.  There  are  truths  which  no  man  can 
reject,  and  be  a  Christian ;  and  in  which  all  real  Chris- 
tians are  firmly  established.  But  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten, 
that  a  belief  of  all  the  truths  which  God  has  revealed  is 
not  indispensable  to  a  man's  becoming  a  Christian,  unless 
he  is  acquainted  wnth  them  all,  and  wilfully  rejects  them. 
Many  persons  may  not  understand  all  that  God  has  reveal- 
ed ;  no  one  man  ever  fully  understood  it  all.  A  man 
may  know  enough  to  become  a  better  man,  and  a  sincere 


380  THE    SINNER'S    EXCUSES 

follower  of  Christ,  without  knowing  everything.  The 
true  way  of  knowing,  is  to  practice  what  we  know.  "  If 
any  man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine, 
whether  it  be  of  God."  It  is  the  duty  of  Christians  to  be 
better  acquainted  with  the  truth  of  God  ;  but  I  would  be 
slow  to  say,  that  no  man  can  be  a  Christian  who  has  not 
much  to  learn.  The  question  is  not  whether  you  ought 
not  to  know  more,  but  whether  you  do  not  know  enough 
to  leave  you  without  excuse  for  not  becoming  a  child  of 
God  ?  I  am  satisfied  to  leave  this  question  with  your  own 
conscience.  "  To  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good,  and  doeth 
it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin."  You  shall  judge  yourself  by 
this  simple  rule.  There  is  no  reader,  even  of  these 
humble  pages,  whose  conscience  is  satisfied  with  tlie  plea 
of  ignorance ;  and  he  that  makes  this  plea  will  have  a 
fearful  account  to  render.  If  this  is  the  great  difficulty 
in  the  way  of  your  salvation,  and  this  alone  is  shutting 
you  out  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  there  is  one  thought 
you  would  do  well  to  consider.  While  you  hesitate,  God 
is  deciding.  While  you  delay,  death  hastens.  While 
you  remain  halting  between  conflicting  opinions,  the 
day  draws  nigh,  when  "  the  servant  who  /mew  his 
Lord's  will  and  did  it  not-,  shall  be  beaten  Avith  many 
stripes." 

There  is  another  class  of  persons  who  allege  as  the 
great  reason  for  not  becoming  Christians,  that  they  have  not 
ii7ne.  This  reason  is  fatal  to  piety,  if  it  is  true.  Religion 
requires  time.  It  requires  fixed  and  steady  thought.  It 
can  never  be  obtained  by  a  slight  and  cursory  view  of  its 
importance,  nor  without  drawing  toward  it  the  warmest 
affections  of  the  heart.  If  there  is  any  man  who  has  no 
time  to  attend  to  it,  I  see  not  but  his  prospects  for  eternity- 
are  dark  and  gloomy  to  the  last  degree. 

Time  is  unspeakably  precious.     It  is  the  gift  of  God, 


REFUTED  BY  THE  CROSS.  381 

and  no  wealth  of  the  world  can  purchase  it.  A  dying 
queen  once  exclaimed,  "  Millions  of  money  for  a  mo- 
ment of  ^me/"  We  may  well  pity  the  man  who  has 
no  time  to  become  a  Christian. 

It  would  be  strang-e  if  God  had  so  ordered  the  affairs 
of  men  that  they  have  not  time  for  all  that  he  requires 
of  them.  He  does  require  them  to  repent  and  believe 
the  Gospel ;  and  he  never  would  have  required  this,  on 
such  fearful  pains  and  penalties,  without  giving  them 
time  to  attend  to  this  great  duty.  He  has  told  them  that 
the  great  business  and  end  of  human  life  is  to  fear  God 
and  keep  his  commandments ;  and,  whatever  else  they 
pursue,  to  "  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his 
righteousness."  He  has  given  them  time  for  this  object 
more  than  for  any  other  purpose  in  the  world.  He 
knows  their  earthly  wants  and  has  given  them  time  for 
these;  and  he  knows  their  spiritual  wants,  and  has 
given  them  time  for  these.  If  men  will  devote  all  their 
time  to  the  pursuits  of  earth,  and  have  none  left  for  God 
and  eternity,  they  do  it  in  opposition  to  his  commands 
and  counsel,  in  violation  of  the  wise  arrangements  of  his 
providence,  and  at  their  own  peril.  I  say  they  do  this 
in  violation  of  the  wise  arrangements  of  his  providence. 
Men  who  conscientiously  devote  time  to  this  great  work, 
have  never  found  that  it  interferes  with  other  duties,  but 
rather  prepares  them  for,  and  assists  them  in,  performing 
other  duties,  and  secures  the  divine  blessing  upon  the 
work  of  their  hands.  They  save  time  by  devoting  a  due 
portion  of  it  to  the  concerns  of  eternity.  The  true  diffi- 
culty with  those  who  complain  that  they  have  no  time 
for  the  business  of  religion  is,  that  they  have  not  just  im- 
pressions of  the  importance  of  religion.  Men  always  find 
time  for  what  they  think  the  most  important;  and 
whenever  the  duties  of  religion  appear  to  them  the  most 


382  THE    SINNER'S    EXCUSES 

important,  they  will  no  longer  plead  that  they  have  no 
time  to  attend  to  this  great  concern. 

How  much  time  do  yon  devote  to  this  great  subject  ? 
Is  it  an  hour  in  the  day?  Is  it  even  one  day  out  of 
seven?  Oris  God's  holy  Sabbath  so  embarrassed  and 
divided  by  the  cares  and  thoughts  of  business,  that  when 
you  go  to  the  sanctuary,  your  mind  is  so  pre-occupied  by 
the  world,  and  so  shut  out  from  all  heavenly  influences, 
that  an  angel  from  heaven  could  not  penetrate  your  con- 
science ?  Besides,  does  it  not  strike  your  minds  as  some- 
what extraordinary  reasoning  for  a  man  to  say,  "  Human 
life  is  so  short  and  uncertain,  and  I  must  die  so  soon,  that 
I  have  no  time  to  think  of  God  and  eternity  ?"  Are  men 
sincere  who  reason  thus  ?  The  time  will  come  when  this 
reasoning  will  hold  good,  and  it  may  come  soon ;  but, 
thanks  to  forbearing  mercy,  that  melancholy  hour  has 
not  yet  arrived  !  Such  reasoning  sounds  like  a  voice 
from  the  grave.  A  man  who  can  soberly  reason  thus, 
must  feel  himself  to  be  a  dying  man.  On  your  bed  of 
death,  you  may  well  say,  "  I  have  no  time  to  attend  to 
religion  now.  Little  did  I  think  that  my  sun  would  set 
so  soon,  and  go  down  in  never-ending  night!"  We  do 
indeed  sometimes  hear  this  reasoning  from  the  trembling 
lips  of  the  aged  sinner.  I  have  heard  it,  too,  urged 
with  deep  and  bitter  sincerity  by  men  who  have  grieved 
God's  Holy  Spirit,  and  are  given  up  to  hopeless  despair. 
Such  persons  not  unfrequently  say,  "  My  time  has  gone 
by.  It  is  too  late  for  me  to  think  of  heaven  now  !"  But 
this  is  not  the  reader's  apology.  No  :  he  is  in  the  bloom 
of  childhood  ;  or  in  the  vigor  and  hopes  of  youth ;  or 
amid  the  enterprises  and  acquisitions  of  middle  life. 
Strange  to  say,  those  whose  morning  is  clear  and  serene, 
and  whose  mid-day  has  scarcely  been  intercepted  by  a 
cloud,  are  urging  the  want  of  time  and  opportunity  as 


REIUTED  BY  THE  CROSS.  383 

one  of  the  reasons  why  ihey  do  not  become  Christians  ! 
But  is  it  so  1  No,  it  is  not  so.  There  is  not  a  man  that 
lives,  who  has  not  time  to  prepare  to  die. 

There  is  another  class  of  persons  who  urge  as  the  reason 
for  their  neglect  of  religion,  that  they  have  known  very 
many  excellent  people  who  were  not  Christians.  The  mean- 
ing of  this  objection  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  this, 
that  men  may  be  very  excellent  men  without  religion.  If 
this  be  so,  the  consequence  is  that  religion  is  not  neces- 
sary. But  does  the  objector  mean  to  say  this  ?  For  if 
men,  however  excellent  they  may  be,  cannot  be  saved 
without  the  religion  of  the  Gospel,  their  excellence  avails 
them  nothing. 

We  do  not  deny  that,  in  one  view,  there  are  many 
excellent  people  who  are  not  Christians.  There  are  kind 
husbands,  careful  fathers,  dutiful  children,  excellent  mer- 
chants, excellent  mechanics,  excellent  scholars,  vigorous 
magistrates,  and  worthy  citizens,  who  are  not  Christians. 
Some  of  them  have  a  great  many  more  excellent  qualities 
than  some  who  profess  to  be  the  disciples  and  followers 
of  Jesus  Christ.  But  by  the  very  terms  of  the  objection, 
they  are  7iot  Christians.  They  lack  this  "  one  thing." 
Their  excellence  does  not  flow  from  any  religious  prin- 
ciple. They  never  act  from  a  sense  of  religious  duty,  or 
from  any  regard  to  the  authority  and  love  of  God.  Now 
we  complain,  not  so  much  of  what  such  men  are,  as  of 
what  they  are  not.  We  say  they  have  deficiencies,  which, 
if  unsupplied,  leave  them  "  weighed  in  the  balance  and 
found  wanting"  when  their  character  comes  under  review 
before  the  last  tribunal.  I  said,  we  complain  not  of  what 
they  are.  But  I  must  modify  this  thought.  In  our 
estimate  of  moral  character,  we  are  never  to  lose  sight  of 
the  truth,  that  "  he  that  is  not /or  Christ  is  against  him," 
and   he  that  does  not  love   God    is  his  enemy.      The 


384  THE    SINNER'S    EXCUSES 

declared  enemy  of  God  does  no  mofe  than  refuse  to  love 
him.  This  is  the  source  of  Iiis  hostility,  that  he  refuses 
to  love.  He  carries  within  him  a  secret  alienation  of 
heart  to  the  character,  government  and  Gospel  of  the 
ever-blessed  God.  The  most  thorough  infidel  is  not  more 
at  heart  the  enemy  of  God  than  such  a  man.  And  is 
this  a  small  sin  1  Is  it  not  the  sin  that  infallibly  destroys 
the  soul?  Painful  as  the  thought  is,  when  these  excel- 
lent people  who  are  not  Christians  come  to  die,  the  God 
of  mercy  will  say  to  them,  "  Depart  ye  cursed  into  ever- 
lasting fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels." 
There  are  multitudes  of  such  excellent  people  who  are 
not  Christians,  who  have  long  since  been  turned  into  hell 
with  all  ''  the  nations  that  forget  God." 

There  is  another  class  of  persons  who  urge  as  a  reason 
for  their  not  becoming  Christians,  that  Christians  them- 
selves do  not  live  up  to  their  profession.  It  is  no  part  of 
our  business  to  justify  or  palliate  the  sins  of  good  men. 
God  does  not  palliate  them ;  they  themselves  do  not 
palliate  them ;  and  they  have  no  wish  that  they  should 
be  palliated.  While  it  is  altogether  right  and  reasonable 
that  they  should  be  without  sin,  and  while  God  requires 
them  to  be  so,  the  melancholy  fact  is,  there  never  was  a 
man  from  the  days  of  Adam  down  to  the  present  hour, 
who  was  perfect  in  holiness.  "If  we  say  we  have  no 
sin,  we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us." 
It  ought  not  therefore  to  be  matter  of  surprise  that  good 
men  are  not  angels  :  this  is  just  the  representation  which 
the  Scriptures  give  of  their  imperfect  character.  "  We 
have  no  objection  to  perfect  Christians,  if  we  could  see 
them ;  but  all  whom  we  ever  yet  have  seen,  had  some- 
thing daily  to  confess  and  be  forgiven,  and  much  need 
to  grow  better." 

We  may  indeed  wonder  that  Christians  are  not  better 


REFUTED    BY    THE    CROSS.  335 

than  they  are.  When  we  consider  their  obhgations  to 
grow  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ ;  when  we  consider  the  great  love  of  God  toward 
them,  and  the  means  they  enjoy  of  making  continual 
advances  in  the  divine  life ;  when  we  reflect  upon  the 
exceeding  great  and  precious  promises  for  their  encour- 
agement and  consolation,  and  upon  the  many  weighty 
and  tender  inducements  to  "  forget  the  things  that  are 
behind  and  reach  forth  to  those  that  are  before  ;"  when 
we  advert  to  their  own  hopes,  and  enjoyments,  and  pro- 
fessions, and  covenant  engagements ;  when  we  think  of 
that  mercy-seat  to  which  they  have  access,  that  Saviour 
who  "  of  God  is  made  to  them  sanctification  as  well  as 
righteousness,"  that  church  to  whom  their  sin  is  such 
a  reproach,  and  that  world  to  which  their  untender  walk 
and  conversation  is  such  a  stumbling-blook ;  we  may 
indeed  wonder  that  they  walk  not  more  worthy  of  their 
vocation,  and  are  not  bitterly  dissatisfied  with  themselves 
in  proportion  as  they  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God. 
But  in  another  view,  we  may  well  wonder  they  are  not 
a  thousand  fold  looise  than  they  are.  They  have  by  na- 
ture "  an  evil  heart  of  unbelief;"  a  heart  "  deceitful 
above  all  things  and  desperately  wicked  ;"  a  heart  prone 
to  pride,  envy,  anger,  sloth,  ingratitude,  rashness,  folly, 
and  every  form  of  evil  affection.  They  inhabit  a  body 
weak,  frail,  suffering,  nervous  and  irritable,  sometimes 
excited,  and  sometimes  depressed,  and  are  of  like  pas- 
sions with  every  unrenewed  man.  They  dwell  in  a 
world,  too,  where  they  are  exposed  and  tempted  to  sin  on 
every  side ;  where  they  have  trial,  on  the  one  hand,  of 
vain  flatteries,  and  on  the  other  of  cruel  mockings  ;  where 
favor,  frowns,  authority  and  fashion  would  seduce  them 
from  their  integrity ;  and  where  it  were  not  strange  if 
their  faith  sometimes  wavers.  Opulence  and  honor 
17 


386  THE    SINNER'S    EXCUSES 

• 

tempt  them  to  forbidden  paths.  Riches  increase,  and 
they  set  their  hearts  upon  them.  Business  occupies  and 
perplexes  them,  and  cools  their  zeal.  The  enjoyments 
of  sense  and  the  allurements  of  pleasure  fascinate  them. 
Spirtual  enemies  beset  them  in  every  guise,  and  under 
every  cloak  of  treachery,  in  order  to  take  every  advan- 
tage of  their  present  state  of  moral  imperfection,  and  to 
plunge  them  in  darkness,  doubts  and  disobedience. 
The  great  adversary  knows  that  when  they  wander  from 
God,  they  are  as  weak  as  other  men ;  and  he  does  not  fail 
to  employ  his  power  and  subtilty  to  overcome  them. 
They  are  always  watched  and  tempted  by  him,  when 
they  are  the  least  fitted  to  shun  or  resist  his  temptations. 
He  is  by  no  means  ignorant  of  the  weak  and  accessible 
points  in  their  character;  he  knows  their  tempers  and 
circumstances,  and  can  tell,  often  better  than  they  them- 
selves, the  "  sin  that  doth  most  easily  beset  them,"  and 
stands  ready,  by  his  fiery  darts,  to  kindle  into  a  blaze  the 
.  combustible  materials  within  them.  It  is  indeed  a  wonder 
of  mercy  that  they  are  not  a  thousand  fold  worse  than 
they  are.  And  it  is  owing  to  nothing  but  the  riches  of 
that  mercy,  restraining  their  corruptions,  preventing 
them  in  the  hour  of  temptation,  watching  over  them  with 
a  father's  love  and  care,  placing  underneath  them  thd 
everlasting  arms,  and  compassing  them  about  with  favor 
as  with  a  shield,  that  they  walk  in  safet}^  and  in  peace. 
We  do  not  appreciate  the  effort,  the  constant,  the  amaz- 
ing effort  of  divine  power  and  faithfulness  that  makes 
them  what  they  are.  Grace  does  not  complete  its  work 
in  a  day.  The  man  who  is  naturally  covetous  does  not 
eradicate  the  love  of  money  by  a  single  effort.  The  man 
who  is  naturally  high-spirited  and  overbearing  does  not 
imbibe  all  the  meekness  and  gentleness  of  a  little  child 
without  much  watchfulness   and  prayer,   and  many  a 


REFUTED  BY  THE  CROSS.  387 

scene  of  mortification  and  defeat.  The  man  who  has 
never  learned  to  govern  his  tongue,  nor  repress  his  re- 
sentment, nor  curb  his  impatience,  nor  subdue  his 
timidity,  nor  rouse  liimself  from  his  sloth  and  luxury, 
nor  control  his  indiscretions,  before  his  conversion,  may 
have  made  greater  and  more  visible  improvement  in  the 
opposite  virtues,  after  he  becomes  a  Christian,  than  the 
man  who,  though  dead  in  sin,  is  naturally  cautious  and 
gentle,  or  bold,  active  and  abstemious.  Not  on?y  is  it 
possible  that  you  expect  from  Christians  more  than  you 
will  ever  realize,  but  that  you  watch  for  their  halting ; 
are  eagle-eyed  to  observe  and  aggravate  their  faults  ;  eat 
"up  the  sin  of  God's  people,  as  you  eat  bread;"  nay, 
more,  that  you  condescend  to  the  devil's  work  by  pro- 
voking, deceiving,  ensnaring,  and  tempting  them  to  sin, 
on  purpose  to  triumph  in  their  fall,  and  in  their  wicked- 
ness find  the  miserable  excuse  for  your  own  incorrigible 
impenitence. 

But  even  after  all  the  faults  of  Christians,  and  all  your 
eagerness  to  discover  and  magnify  them,  do  you  not  find 
them  Christians  still  1  Did  the  men  of  the  world  possess 
their  character,  would  you  not  commend  it  1  Were  the 
Christians  to  whom  you  refer  in  all  respects  just  what 
they  are,  and  had  never  named  the  name  of  Christ  before 
men,  would  you  not  think  and  speak  well  of  them  1 
Would  you  not  think  the  community  the  losers,  the  moral 
atmosphere  less  pure,  and  the  tone  of  moral  principle  less 
elevated  and  commanding,  were  there  no  such  Christians 
in  the  world  1  There  may  be  dishonest  men,  deceiving 
and  lying  men,  impure  men,  men  who  "make  a  gain 
of  godliness,"  in  every  church.  There  may  be  self- 
deceived  men,  who  have  come  into  the  church  in  an 
unguarded  hour,  and  under  the  mere  impulse  of  animal 
excitement.     Of  such  persons  we  have  no  reasonable 


388  THE    SINNER'S    EXCUSES 

hope  that  they  will  "  witness  a  g-ood  confession,"  or, 
when  hardly  pressed,  will  so  demean  themselves  as  not  to 
bring  reproach  on  that  sacred  name  by  which  they  are 
called.  And  there  may  be  real  Christians,  who  fall,  and 
cover  themselves  and  the  church  with  sackcloth.  But 
their  wickedness  is  no  reason  for  your  neglecting  the 
Gospel.  They  are  not  the  standard  of  piety.  Even  were 
all  the  Christians  in  the  world  hypocrites,  their  hypocrisy 
would  not  release  you  from  the  obligation  of  becoming  the 
child  of  God.  If  you  wait  until  Christians  are  what  tbej'- 
ought  to  be,  you  will  wait  a  long  time.  Death  will 
make  fearful  inroads  in  our  world,  and  one  generation  of 
the  godly  after  another  will  descend  to  the  tomb,  and 
ascend  to  their  Father's  house,  before  they  will  see  him 
as  he  is,  and  be  like  him.  Many  who  now  name  the 
name  of  Christ,  will  stumble,  and  fall,  and  perish ;  while 
all  his  true  disciples,  through  grace  helping  them,  will 
still  travel  on  in  the  straight  and  narrow  way,  and,  after 
many  sins,  and  deep  repentance,  and  many  discourage- 
ments and  trials,  having  "  washed  their  robes,  and  made 
them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,"  will  enter  into 
the  heavenly  city ;  and  you,  who  have  made  their  sins 
the  reason  of  your  impenitence,  will  be  left  to  mourn 
that  you  have  stumbled  over  their  imperfections  into  the 
fire  that  shall  never  be  quenched. 

There  is  also  a  class  of  persons  who  urge  as  a  reason 
for  their  hesitation  in  this  great  matter,  that  they  shall 
not  hold  out,  if  they  undertake  it  ever  so  earnestly. 
They  read  in  the  Scriptures  such  passages  as  these : 
"  If  any  man  draw  back,  my  soul  hath  no  pleasure  in 
him;"  "  He  that  putteth  his  hand  to  the  plough,  and 
looketh  back,  is  not  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
Declarations  like  these  alarm  them,  and  they  tremble  at 
the  thought  of  entering  upon  the  Christian  life.     They 


REFUTED  BY  THE  CROSS.  389 

have  so  many  melancholy  examples  of  apostacy  before 
their  eyes,  that  their  fears  have  become  predominant, 
and  they  have  resolved  not  to  do  as  others  have 
done,  lest  "  their  last  state  should  be  worse  than  the 
first." 

There  is  some  plausibility  in  this  reasoning.  No  man 
is  justified  in  turning  his  attention  to  religion  lightly,  or 
with  any  other  views  than  of  persevering  to  the  last.  No 
man  is  justified  in  thinking  of  it  as  a  secondary  concern, 
or  one  that  may  be  pursued  without  effort,  and  in  which 
there  are  no  dangers  to  be  guarded  against,  no  enemies 
to  be  resisted,  no  trials  to  be  encountered,  no  sacrifices  to 
be  made,  no  diflSculties  to  be  overcome;  or  one  in  which 
a  final  failure  is  not  attended  with  disastrous  conse- 
quences. 

But  shall  the  fear  of  not  being  able  to  hold  out  prevent 
any  man  from  becoming  the  true  follower  of  Christ? 
Will  he  ever  hold  out,  if  he  does  not  begin  ?  Will  he 
ever  travel  on  in  the  na,rrow  way  that  leads  to  life,  if  he 
never  enters  it  1  What  if  he  waits  half  a  century  ;  will 
he  be  any  nearer  gaining  the  victory,  if  he  does  not  put 
on  the  armor  1  What  if  all  the  Christians  now  on  earth 
and  in  heaven  had  been  prevented  from  going  to  Christ  by 
such  reasoning  as  this  1  What  if  every  impenitent  sinner 
should  be  prevented  from  going  to  him  by  such  apprehen- 
sions 1  If  the  reason  is  justifiable,  and  holds  good  in  any 
case,  it  is  justifiable  and  holds  good  in  every  case  ;  and 
there  is  an  end  to  true  religion  in  our  world.  The  difii- 
culty  does  not  actually  lie  in  the  fear  of  falling  away 
when  once  a  man  has  entered  upon  the  Christian  career; 
it  lies  deeper  than  this :  it  is  his  reluctance  to  enter  it. 
He  foresees  the  obstacles ;  he  knows  that  if  he  once 
begins,  he  must  persevere,  and  will  persevere,  and  there- 
fore he  hesitates  at  taking  the  first  step.     He  is  not  wil- 


390  THE    SINNER'S    EXCUSES 

ling  to  give  the  Cross  the  first  place  in  his  affections ;  to 
root  out  every  idol ;  to  renounce  every  other  master  ;  to 
forsake  the  world,  and  give  up  whatever  is  inconsistent 
with  his  will  and  glory  ;  to  come  just  as  he  is,  a  lost  and 
helpless  sinner,  and  put  his  trust  in  the  Cross  alone  fOr 
salvation.  Without  doing  this,  the  first  step  is  not  taken. 
Let  this  difficulty  be  removed,  and  though  prayer,  and 
pains,  and  watchfulness,  and  snares,  and  dangers,  may 
attend  him  all  his  way  through  the  wilderness,  he  has 
the  promise  that  "  He  who  has  begun  a  good  work 
within  him,  will  carry  it  on  to  the  day  of  Jesus  Christ." 
And  though  heaven  and  earth  may  pass  away,  not  one 
jot,  or  one  tittle,  of  all  that  God  has  promised  shall  fail. 
The  man  who  once  enters  the  way  of  life;,,  will  go  for- 
ward because  propelled  by  almighty  grace.  God  will 
not  suffer  him  ever  so  to  break  away  from  the  Cross,  as 
finally  to  perish.  Grace  will  not  only  keep  him  if  he 
remains  faithful,  but  will  make  him  faithful.  But  for 
this,  we  know  you  would  not  hold  out.  And  here  lies 
the  fallacy  of  your  excuse.  You  trust  not  to  Christ  in 
the  promise.  You  expect  to  faint  and  be  weary,  and 
utterly  fail,  because  you  think  not  of  Him  who  "  giveth 
power  to  the  faint,  and  to  them  that  have  no  might  he 
increaseth  strength."  You  tremble  at  dangers  and  dis- 
couragements, because  you  forget  Him  who  "gathers  the 
lambs  in  his  arms,  and  carries  them  in  his  bosom,  and 
gently  leads  the  weak  ones  of  the  flock."  You  fear  to 
commit  yourself,  because  you  have  overlooked  the  decla- 
ration, "  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee." 

There  are  not  a  few  persons,  also,  who  urge  as  a  reason 
for  their  not  becoming  pious,  that  their  companions  and 
friends  are  not  Christians.  They  do  not  like  tlie  idea  of 
being  singular,  and  standing  alone.  They  live  in  an 
irreligious  family,  and  are  surrounded  with  irreligious 


REFUTED    BY    THE    CROSS.  39 j 

associates.  Those  with  whom  they  are  in  the  habit  of 
familiar  intercourse  scoff  at  religion,  and  ridicule  all 
serious  attention  to  the  concerns  of  the  soul.  Their  gay 
acquaintances  will  think  it  very  strange  of  them,  if  they 
forsake  their  society,  and  cast  in  their  lot  with  the  society 
of  the  godly. 

Some  of  my  readers  would  be  very  ungrateful  to  urge 
such  an  excuse  as  this.  You  were  educated  and  live  in 
the  society  of  God's  people,  where  the  deepest  interest  is 
felt  in  your  spiritual  welfare,  and  where  every  sorrow 
would  be  diminished,  and  every  joy  quickened,  by  your 
becoming  a  follower  of  the  Lamb.  You  have  not  to  do  as 
Abraham  did,  "  get  out  from  your  country,  and  your  kin- 
dred^ and  yonx  father'' s  kouse,^^  in  order  to  become  united 
with  the  visible  people  of  God.  You  have  no  impious 
relatives  to  stifle  in  their  birth  your  first  convictions,  but 
rather  those  whose  tears  would  fall,  whose  prayers  would 
rise,  and  whose  hearts  would  leap  for  joy,  at  the  first  inti- 
mation that  you  "remember  your  Creator  in  the  days  of 
your  youth,"  and  are  setting  your  face  toward  Zion. 

And  how  do  those  of  you  who  have  associations  less 
favorable  to  piety  than  these,  know  that  those  around  you 
will  feel  the  wound,  and  be  grieved?  and  what  right 
have  you  to  say  they  will  ridicule  and  ensnare  you  in 
your  course  toward  heaven  ?  Have  they  done  it  1  Have 
they  threatened  to  do  so  ?  Have  they  told  you  that  you 
may  count  on  their  hostility  1  If  not,  may  you  not  be 
doing  great  injustice  to  their  character,  to  presume  that 
they  are  such  "  enemies  of  God  and  all  righteousness," 
such  "  children  of  the  devil,"  as  to  scoff  and  sneer, 
because  you  would  fain  make  the  Cross  your  refuge,  and 
the  God  of  heaven  your  portion  1  What  would  you  say, 
if  you  knew  they  were  indulging  the  same  unworthy 
suspicions  of  you;    and  were  now  hesitating  between 


392  THE    SINNER'S    EXCUSES 

Christ  and  the  woild,  and  balancing  the  question  between 
heaven  and  hell,  through  the  apprehension  of  your  oppo- 
sition and  raillery  ?  Who  can  tell  but  your  indifference 
to  this  great  subject  is  the  reason  with  them  for  neglecting 
it ;  and  that,  notwithstanding  this,  they  may  have  firmness 
enough  to  resist  and  overcome  it,  and  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  God,  while  you  are  cast  out  ?  And  even  if  it  be 
otherwise,  who  can  tell  but  through  your  piety  they  may 
become  pious,  and  that  both  you  and  they  may  yet  be 
found  traveling  together  in  the  straight  and  narrow  way 
that  leads  to  life,  as  you  have  been  in  the  broad  way  that 
leads  to  death  ? 

But  what  if  it  be  not  so  1  Have  you  never  learned 
that  it  is  "  through  much  tribulation,  that  you  "  may  be 
called  to  "enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven'?"  Have  you 
never  heard  of  those  whose  faithfulness  to  Christ  and  his 
Gospel  exposed  them  to  "  trial  of  cruel  mockings  and 
scourgings,  yea,  moreover,  of  bonds  and  imprisonments'?" 
Did  you  never  read  of  those  who  "were  stoned,  and 
sawn  asunder,  and  tempted,  and  slain  with  the  sword, 
and  wandered  about  in  sheep-skins  and  goat-skins,  lieing 
destitute,  afflicted,  tormented,"  because  they  held  fast 
the  testimony  of  Jesus  1  Shall  the  sneers  of  men,  or 
their  mockery  or  rancor,  drive  you  to  perdition  ?  Were 
it  not  easier  and  better  meekly  to  endure  their  reproaches 
now,  than  to  endure  them,  and  your  own,  and  the  re- 
proaches of  the  universe,  forever  1  Will  you  go  to  ever- 
lastingburningsforfear  of  beinglaughed  at  as  an  enthusiast 
by  those  who  have  neither  the  fear  of  God  before  their 
eyes,  nor  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ  in  tlieir  hearts '?  Is  all 
your  civility  due  to  a  world  that  lieth  in  wickedness,  and 
none  to  the  Saviour  of  lost  men  ?  Are  no  compliances 
and  concessions  demanded  by  the  cause  of  truth  and 
righteousness  ?     Is  it  of  no  consequence  that  you  be  con- 


REFUTED  BY  THE  CROSS.  393 

ciliatory  to  the  God  that  made  you  ?  It  is  not  wonderful 
that  you  shoukl  desire  to  concihate  the  esteem  and  favor 
of  men,  but  they  are  purchased  at  too  dear  a  rate  by  for- 
feiting- the  favor  of  God  and  the  loss  of  the  soul. 

There  are  also  those  who  are  deterred  from  becoming 
Christians,  because  they  know  not  if  God  will  accept  them. 
When  we  urge  men,  who  are  anxious  for  their  salva- 
tion, to  become  reconciled  to  God ;  when  we  cut  them 
off  from  every  other  refuge,  and  tell  them,  without 
delay,  to  repent  and  believe  the  Gospel ;  they  often  be- 
come benighted  and  distressed,  and  say  that  tliey  are  so 
great  sinners  that  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  they  will 
ever  be  accepted. 

Such  persons  want  more  encouragement  than  even  the 
Cross  of  Christ  can  give  them.  That  Cross  sets  before 
them  the  fullness  and  freeness  of  the  great  salvation.  On 
the  authority  of  God,  it  invites  and  urges  them  to  come 
to  Christ  that  they  may  have  life.  It  instructs  them  that 
tlie  ground  of  their  acceptance  is  not  in  themselves,  but 
out  of  themselves,  and  in  the  work  of  Christ  alone.  It 
assures  them  that  the  greatest  sinner,  as  well  as  the  least 
sinner,  if  he  comes  to  Jesus,  will  find  a  cordial  and  ready 
acceptance  with  God  ;  because  neither  the  greatness  nor 
the  smallness  of  his  transgressions  has  anything  to  do 
with  the  matter  of  his  acceptance,  and  that  God  requires 
him  simply  to  fall  in  with  his  own  method  of  mercy,  and 
receive  Jesus  Christ  as  he  is  offered  in  the  Gospel.  Where, 
then,  is  there  any  room  for  the  objection,  "I  know  not  if 
God  will  accept  vaeV  Such  a  man  knows  that  if 
he  goes  to  Christ  he  will  be  accepted,  and  that  if  he 
stays  away  from  Christ  he  will  not  be  accepted.  Yet 
this  does  not  satisfy  him.  Nay,  this  discourages  and  de- 
presses him.  The  encouragement  he  wants  is,  to  be 
comforted  in  his  sins,  and  to  be  told  that  there  is  some 
17* 


394  THE    SINNER'S    EXCUSES 

promise  in  the  word  of  God  for  persons  in  his  anxious 
condition,  and  while  he  is  persevering  in  his  agitated  and 
remorseful  impenitence.  Therefore  I  have  said  he  wants 
more  encouragement  than  the  Cross  can  give  him. 
The  Cross  cannot  give  him  the  least  encouragement  so 
long  as  he  stays  away  from  Christ,  grieves  his  Spirit,  and 
persists  in  a  rebellion  not  the  less  aggravated  because  it 
is  enlightened  and  anxious.  Such  persons  profess  to  be 
seeking  and  striving  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven ; 
but  it  is  no  unusual  thing  for  them  to  feel  that  they  are 
at  heart  unfriendly  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  be  themselves 
conscious  that  they  choose  death  rather  than  life.  But 
whether  they  are  conscious  of  it  or  not,  we  know  the  fact 
is  so.  And  yet  they  are  anxious  for  the  salvation  of  their 
souls.  But  what  does  the  anxiety  of  all  those  who  reject 
tlie  Gospel  salvation  amount  to,  more  than  an  earnest 
desire  to  be  delivered  from  hell,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
maintain  their  alienation  from  God  ?  This  is  their  em- 
barrassment, and  we  cannot  relieve  it,  nor  have  we  any 
desire  to  do  so  if  we  could.  This  is  their  reason  for  not 
becoming  Christians.  And  who  can  ansAver  it  ?  So  long 
as  those  who  feel  and  reason  thus,  continue  to  plead  this 
reason  for  not  becoming  the  followers  of  Christ,  their  case 
is  hopeless ;  and  the  longer  they  remain  in  this  state, 
the  farther  are  they  from  becoming  Christians,  and  the 
less  likely  to  become  Christians  at  all. 

There  are  still  others  who  say,  I  cannot  become  a 
Christian. 

You  do  not  mean,  by  this,  that  it  is  an  impossible  thing, 
even  by  the  grace  of  God,  for  you  ever  to  become  an 
altered  man.  If  so,  to  you  these  lessons  from  the  Cross 
are  vain ;  in  vain  has  God  sent  his  Son  to  die,  his  Spirit 
to  convince,  his  ordinances  to  quicken ;  in  vain  his  love 
expostulates  and  urges  you  to  repentance ;  for,  after  all, 


•  REFUTED  BY  THE  CROSS.  395 

you  must  "  die  in  your  sins."     You  probably  mean,  that 
in  your  presejit  state  of  mind,  and  with  your  present  char- 
acter, it  is  impossible  for  you  to  repent  and  believe  the 
Gospel.     There  is  no  disputing-  this ;   it  is  too  obvious. 
So  long  as  you  are  the  enemy  of  God,  you  cannot  be  his 
friend  ;  so  long  as  you  love  sin,  you  cannot  turn  from  it; 
and  while  you  reject  Christ,  you  cannot  come  to  him. 
There  is  a  real,   absolute   impossibility   in  loving   and 
hating-,  in  receiving-  and  rejecting-,  at  the  same  time.    But  is 
this  state  of  enmity  and  unbelief  a  right  state  of  mind,  and 
can  it  be  justified  ?    If  not,  and  this  is  the  only  difficulty  in 
the  way  of  your  becoming  Christians,  why  do  you  cherish 
it  1   and  why,  in  defiance  to  all  instruction,  rebuke  and 
admonition— all  the  expostulations  of  love  and  mercy,  all 
the  strivings  of  God's  Spirit,  and  all  the  sober  convic- 
tions of  your  own  conscience— do  you  thus  summon  all 
your  powers  of  reasoning  to  defend  it  ?     Why  not  yield 
to  these  admonitions,  and  frankly  confess  that  this  sinful 
state  of  mind  is  no  excuse  ?     God  may,  and  must,  and 
does  call  upon  you  to  exercise  a  different  spirit,  and  one 
more  in  accordance  with  what  you  yourself  cannot  help 
seeing  to  be  your  known  duty.    It  is  not  easy  to  perceive 
how  a  man  can  be  "  condemned  out  of  his  own  mouth," 
if  not  by  such  reasoning  as  this. 

Perhaps  you  will  reply,  that  you  are  sensible  of  this, 
and  that,  while  you  know  this  guilty  state  of  mind  is  all 
wrong,  yet  you  cannot  subdue  it.  This  is  altogether 
another  matter.  If  you  are  sensible  of  this,  and  know 
that  this  your  strongest  and  last  fortress  exposes  and  con- 
demns you,  is  it  not  marvelous  that  you  consent  to  urge 
it,  and  to  impose  upon  yourself,  and  fortify  your  obduracy, 
by  reasoning  which  you  know  to  be  unsound,  and  in 
which  you  yourself  have  no  confidence  ?  Were  it  not 
better  to  be  speechless,  as  you  certainly  will  be  at  the 


396  THE    SINNER'S    EXCUSES 

last  day,  if  you  have  nothing-  more  to  plead  than  this  self- 
condemning  apology  !  Were  it  not  better  to  feel,  and  to 
say,  that  you  have  no  excuse,  and  to  bow  down  before 
God  in  deep  self-loathing  and  reproach,  and  cry  out, 
Guilty  !  guilty  !  lost !  lost !  lost !  "  Lord,  save,  or  I 
perish!"  There  is  difficulty  in  overcoming  this  state  of 
mind — a  difficulty  that  is  insuperable  except  by  mighty 
grace.  It  is  a  melancholy  truth,  that  the  tendency  to  sin 
in  the  human  heart  is  invincibly  strong ;  and  that  no  man 
ever  arrived  at  the  possession  of  true  godliness  but  by  a 
process  of  feeling  that  gave  him  painful  consciousness  of 
the  opposition  of  his  heart  to  God,  and  his  entire  depend- 
ence on  the  Holy  Spirit.  A  deep  and  impressive  sense 
of  this  truth  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  genuine  conviction. 
But  this  is  not  the  ground  you  occupy.  You  are  plead- 
ing your  dependence  on  the  Spirit  of  God  as  an  excuse, 
and  as  a  reason  that  justifies  you  for  not  becoming  a 
Christian.  This,  no  man  in  a  deeply  solemn  state  of 
mind  ever  does.  The  very  fact  that  you  are  urging  it  as 
perhaps  your  strongest  reason  for  continuing  in  impeni- 
tence, shows  that  it  is  insincerely  urged,  and  that  the 
deep  and  humbling  import  of  it  you  have  never  felt. 
Would  to  God  that  you  did  feel  it,  and  that  it  sunk  so 
deeply  into  your  heart  as  to  turn  your  strength  into 
weakness,  your  hopes  into  despair,  and  your  self-confi- 
dence into  that  reliance  on  almighty  grace  which  in- 
spires you  with  new  hopes  and  new  strength,  and  for 
once  and  forever  teaches  you  to  say,  "  Without  Christ,  I 
can  do  nothing  !"  Heaven  is  high  and  you  cannot  reach 
it ;  but  there  is  a  ladder,  like  the  one  which  Jacob  saw, 
on  which  you  may  ascend,  worm  as  you  are,  even  to  the 
bright  pavilion  where  Jehovah  dwells.  Nay,  there  is  an 
open  way  into  the  holiest  of  all  by  the  blood  of  Christ. 
" I  am  the  way,"  says  he ;  "no  man  coraeth  unto  the 


I 

REFUTED  BY  THE  CROSS.  397 

Father  but  by  me."  If  you  reply,  you  cannot  even  come 
to  Christ  without  imparted  help,  this  also  is  true.  The 
Saviour  himself  declares,  "  No  man  can  come  to  me 
except  the  Father  which  hath  sent  me  draw  him."  You 
cannot  feel  this  truth  too  deeply.  God  "  will  have  mercy 
on  whom  he  will  have  mercy."  He  is  under  no  obliga- 
tions to  make  you  "  willing-  in  the  day  of  his  power." 
You  are  in  his  hands  just  as  the  clay  is  in  the  hands  of 
the  potter.  He  may  leave  you  to  your  own  chosen  way 
of  death.  He  has  a  perfect  right  to  do  so,  and  may  be 
provoked  to  do  so  by  your  wicked  excuses.  Not  until 
you  see  and  acknowledge  this  sovereign  right  of  God, 
have  you  any  such  views  and  feelings  as  are  befitting 
you  as  a  lost  sinner,  and  an  unjustifiable  rebel  against  the 
King  of  the  universe.  Had  you  some  such  views  as 
these — had  you  such  a  sense  of  your  vileness,  ill-desert 
and  helplessness,  as  to  prostrate  you  in  the  dust  before 
God,  and  make  you  feel  that  you  are  sinking  in  deep 
waters,  and  that  nothing  but  almighty  grace  can  take  your 
feet  from  the  horrible  pit  and  the  miry  clay,  and  set  them 
upon  a  rock — these  vain  excuses  would  appear  to  you  as 
"  refuges  of  lies."  There  would  be  hope  for  you  then. 
You  would  not  be  far  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Did 
you  once  glory  in  your  infirmity,  that  the  power  of 
"  Christ  might  rest  upon  you,"  so  far  from  standing  and 
complaining  of  difficulty,  you  would  see  that  it  is  an  easy 
thing  to  become  a  Christian,  and  wonder  why  you  had 
not  become  so  long  ago.  The  work  is  done  when  you 
once  feel  that,  though  you  are  perfect  weakness,  you  have 
omnipotence  to  rest  upon.  Burdened  as  you  may  be 
with  sin,  oppressed  as  you  may  be  with  doubt  and  fear, 
blinded  as  your  dark  mind  may  be,  and  miserable  and 
undone — if,  under  this  burden,  this  darkness,  this  wicked 
impotency,  and  these  mighty  woes  you  can  repair  to  the 


398  THE    SINOT]R'S    EXCUSES 

Cross,  you  shall  not  be  sent  empty  away.  Tears  and 
sighs,  and  a  broken  heart,  find  a  place  at  the  mercy- 
seat.  "  When  the  poor  and  needy  seek  water  and  there 
is  none,  and  their  tongue  faileth  for  thirst,  I  the  Lord 
will  hear  them  5  I  the  God  of  Israel  will  not  forsake 
them." 

Such  are  some  of  the  sinner's  excuses  for  his  continued 
impenitence.  Do  they  hold  good  in  view  of  the  Cross  ? 
Do  they  justify  him  in  the  view  of  his  own  conscience  1 
Will  they  justify  him  on  the  bed  of  death?  Will  he 
plead  them  at  the  bar  of  judgment?  Has  he  any  good 
reason  for  not  becoming  a  Christian?  Must  he  not  see 
that  it  is  the  most  reasonable  tiling  in  the  world  that  he 
should  cease  to  contend  with  God,  and  no  longer  hold 
out  against  the  claims  of  his  redeeming  love  ?  Is  there 
not  some  strange  and  infatuating  delusion  influencing  his 
mind  ?  When  he  reasons  thus,  is  it  not  because  his 
understanding  is  darkened,  his  judgment  blinded,  his 
reason  warped  ?  No  sober  man  makes  such  gross  blun- 
ders in  reasoning  in  respect  to  his  temporal  interests  ;  and 
whence  is  it  that  he  is  so  irrational  in  respect  to  those  that 
are  eternal  ?  Has  not  the  great  adversary  more  to  do 
with  such  a  state  of  mind  than  men  are  aware  of?  Is  he 
not  doing  all  in  his  power  to  prevent  the  effect  of  the 
Gospel,  and  to  blind  the  minds  of  those  who  do  not  he- 
lieve  ?  It  is  difficult  to  explain  the  fact,  that  men  capable 
of  reasoning  reason  so  wide  of  the  truth,  and  come  to 
such  strange  conclusions,  on  the  subject  of  personal 
religion.  The  Cross  of  Christ  solemnly  warns  you 
against  these  devices.  It  will  be  no  relief  to  you  in  the 
future  world,  that  you  were  led  away  by  these  moral 
delusions ;  but  you  will  rather  wonder  how  your  usual 
prudence  and  sagacity  should  have  so  forsaken  you.  It 
is  a  fearful  thing  thus  to  harden  your  heart,  to  add  sin  to 


REFUTED  BY  THE  CROSS.  399 

sin,  and  weary  yourself  with  committing-  iniquity,  till 
you  become  a  vessel  of  wrath  filled  to  destruction.  You 
must  soon  go  from  these  days  of  mercy  to  the  day  of 
judgment ;  from  the  light  of  time  to  the  still  stronger 
light  of  eternity.  Abandon,  then,  these  indefensible  for- 
tresses, these  weak  defences  of  the  carnal  mind,  these 
refuges  of  lies,  and  flee  for  refuge  to  the  hope  set  before 
you  in  the  Gospel.  Bow  to  the  authority,  be  attracted 
by  the  love,  of  the  Cross.  Receive  that  Saviour,  and  in- 
stead of  struggling  any  longer  with  Omnipotence,  and 
striving  against  his  Spirit,  lift  your  eye  to  him  with  desire 
and  hope.  Then  the  dark  cloud  will  be  gone ;  the  Sun 
of  Righteousness  will  shine ;  and  you  will  have  peace 
with  God  through  Jesus  Christ.  You  will  no  longer 
exhibit  what  ought  to  have  been  an  anomaly  in  a  world 
of  reasonable  beings — a  wicked  man  rebelling  against  a 
good  God — a  weak  and  finite  creature  contending  with  a 
God  of  infinite  power — an  unhappy  and  misen-able  crea- 
ture opposing  the  only  means  of  blessedness — a  lost 
sinner  turning  away  from  the  only  Saviour — a  rational 
existence,  glorying  in  his  reason,  and  yet  calling  in 
question  the  reasonableness  of  falling  in  with  that  method 
of  mercy  by  which  infinite  wisdom  and  love  are  honored 
in  the  salvation  of  men. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  CROSS  REJECTED,  THE  GREAT  SIN. 

As  the  present  chapter  closes  this  volume,  I  propose  to 
devote  it  to  some  considerations  which  I  may  not  with- 
hold from  those  of  my  readers  that  have  long  known  and 
long  rejected  the  truth  and  grace  made  manifest  by  the 
Cross  of  Christ.  In  numberless  forms  of  secret  and  overt 
iniquity,  men  have  disregarded  the  divine  authority  and 
abused  the  divine  goodness ;  but  these  are  all  venial 
offences  compared  with  the  sin  of  unbelief.  This  is  the 
sin  w^iich,  of  all  others,  exposes  them  to  the  wrath  and 
curse  of  God— the  sin  w^hich  it  most  becomes  them  to 
bewail  and  detest ;  it  is  emphatically  the  sin  of  which  the 
Spirit  of  Truth  most  deeply  convinces  those  of  its  guilty 
perpetrators  who  are  brought  to  repentance.  "  When 
He,  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  is  come,  he  will  convince  the 
world  of  5i/i."  And  v)hy  will  he  convince  the  world  of 
sin  ?  Not  because  they  are  by  nature  children  of  wrath, 
not  because  their  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things  and  des- 
perately wicked — though  of  this  apostate  and  guilty  char- 
acter he  does  convince  them — but  because  they  believe 
not  on  the  Son  of  God.  This  is  the  "front  of  their 
offending."  In  the  deliberate  judgment  of  that  Saviour 
by  w^iom  the  actions  of  men  are  weighed,  it  stands  forth 
as  the  enormity  of  their  crime,  that  "  they  believe  not  on 
Him."     It  was  a  fearful  crime  to  crucify  the  Son  of  God. 

"  I  asked  the  Heavens,  What  foe  to  God  hath  done 
This  unexampled  deed  ?    The  Heavens  exclaim. 


THE    CROSS    REJECTED,    THE    GREAT    SIN.        401 

' '  Twas  man  !  and  we,  in  horror,  snatched  the  sun 
From  such  a  spectacle  of  guilt  and  shame.' 

"  I  asked  the  Sea :  the  Sea  in  fury  boiled, 
And  answered  with  his  voice  of  storms,  "Twas  man .' 
My  waves  in  panic  at  his  crime  recoiled, 
Disclos'd  the  abyss,  and  from  the  centre  ran.' 

"  I  asked  the  Earth  :  the  Earth  replied,  aghast, 
' '  Twas  man  !  and  such  strange  pangs  my  bosom  rent, 
That  still  I  groan  and  shudder  at  the  past.' 
To  man,  gay,  smiling,  thoughtless  man,  I  went, 
And  ask'd  him  next :  He  turn'd  a  scornful  eye. 
Shook  his  proud  head,  and  deigned  me  no  reply." 


Unbelief  "  crucifies  him  afresh."  This  is  emphatically 
the  sin  of  man;  the  sin  which  even  devils  have  not  per- 
petrated, and  v/hich  remains  the  foul  stain  upon  the 
character  of  the  world  where  the  Saviour  died,  and 
where  we  dwell. 

Not  to  receive  the  salvation  purchased  by  the  Cross  of 
Christ,  appears,  at  first  view,  to  be  a  negative  sin,  and 
one  simply  of  omission.  Many  persons  regard  it  as  the 
mere  want  of  faith,  and  hence  it  seems  to  them  a  com- 
paratively harmless  thing.  Nor  may  it  be  denied,  that  if 
unbelief  consists  in  the  mere  absence  of  faith,  there  are 
many  supposable  instances  in  which  it  is  certainly  very 
harmless.  It  is  a  mere  nothing,  and  has  no  moral  quality 
whatever ;  for  there  can  be  no  criminality  in  mere  nega- 
tion, or  want  of  volition.  But  there  is  no  such  thing  as  this 
in  the  moral  universe.  There  is,  indeed,  no  harm  in  some 
of  mankind  not  believing.  This  the  apostle  teaches,  when 
he  inquires  concerning  the  heathen  nations,  "  How  shall 
they  believe  in  him  of  whom  they  have  not  heard?"  Those 
who  have  never  heard  of  Christ  cannot  be  blamed  for  not 
hearing,  or  for  not  believing.  There  is  therefore  something 
in  unbelief  more  criminal  than  this  mere  want  of  faith. 


402         THE    CROSS    REJECTED,    THE    GREAT    SIN. 

Nor  does  unbelief  consist  in  speculative  infidelity  merely. 
Speculative  infidelity  involves  it;  but  the  spirit  of  unbelief, 
in  all  its  positive  activity  and  energ-y,  is  often  found  where 
speculative  infidelity  has  no  place,  and  where  men  have 
no  doubts  of  the  truth  of  Christianity.  Nor  may  it  be  con- 
fidently affirmed  that  unbelief  consists  in  that  diffidence 
of  one's  good  estate  and  acceptance  with  God,  of  which 
there  are  so  many  examples  in  men  who  give  evidence 
of  conversion.  It  may  not  be  true  that,  in  the  same  pro- 
portion in  which  a  man  doubts  of  his  adoption  into  the 
divine  family,  he  is  an  unbeliever ;  nor,  on  the  other 
hand,  that,  in  the  same  proportion  in  which  he  has  no 
doubts  of  his  acceptance,  he  is  a  believer.  Unbelief 
is  not  incompatible  with  presumptuous  assurance ;  while 
there  may  be  true  faith,  though  weak  and  imperfect, 
where  there  is  much  diffidence  and  fear,  many  clouds, 
and  deep  darkness. 

Unbelief  is  the  opposite  of  belief:  it  is  disbelief.  It  is 
the  act  of  the  mind  rejecting  the  salvation  of  the  Cross. 
"  He  that  is  not  with  me,"  saith  the  Saviour,  "  is  against 
me."  Where  his  salvation  is  not  the  object  of  com- 
placency and  love,  it  is  the  object  of  aversion  and  hatred. 
The  very  indifference  of  men  toward  it,  arises  from  a 
secret  and  unavowed  hostility  to  its  claims.  WJiat  is 
indifference  to  the  Gospel,  but  a  refusal  to  love  it?  and 
what  do  its  declared  enemies  more  than  requite  it  with 
such  refusal  ?  When  a  man  from  the  heart  believes  it, 
he  receives,  loves  and  obeys  it;  when  he  disbelieves,  he 
sincerely  and  heartily  rejects  it.  This  the  Scriptures 
represent  to  be  the  nature  of  unbelief.  "  He  came  to  his 
own,  and  his  own  received  him  not;  but  to  as  many  as 
received  him  he  gave  the  power  to  become  the  sons  of 
God,  even  to  them  that  believe  on  his  name.''  "  Did  ye 
never  read  in  the  Scriptures  that  the  stone  which  the 


^HE    CROSS    REJECTED,    THE    GREAT    SIN.         403 

builders  rejected,  the  same  is  become  the  head  of  the 
corner?"     ''  But  first,  the  Son  of  Man  must  be  rejected 
of  this  g-eneration."    The  scribes  and  lawyers  rejected  the 
counsel  of  God  against  themselves.     Such  is   the  view 
given  of  unbelief  in  several  of  the  parables  in  the  evan- 
gelical history,  and  particularly  the  parable  of  the  mar- 
riage feast,  the  Gospel  supper,  and  the  husbandman  and 
the  vineyard.     Our  blessed  Lord  describes  this  sin  in  that 
memorable  declaration  to  the  Jews,  "Ye  will  not  come 
to  me  that  ye  might  have  life."     This  is  the  true  char- 
acter of  unbelief.      It  is  rejecting  and  opposing,  with 
all  the  heart,  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God.     It  is  re- 
sisting its  truth,  rebelling  against  its  authority,  refusing 
its  mercy,  opposing  its  terms,  and  rejecting  its  holy  sal- 
vation.    Though  multitudes  do  this,  who  have  no  just 
impressions  of  the  wickedness  of  so  doing,  yet  is  it  their 
great  sin,  their  damning  sin,  and  the  sin  that  binds  the 
guilt  of  all  their  other  sins  upon  them.     There  must, 
therefore,  be  something  peculiarly  aggravated  in  this  sin, 
whether  we  can  discover  it  or  not.  And,  if  we  mistake  not, 
there  are  things  discoverable  in  it,  which  may  help  us  to 
some  just  views  of  its  enormity.     What  are  these  things  ? 
It  is  perfectly  obvious  that,  unbelief  is  a  sin  against 
great  degrees  of  knowledge  in  regard  to  the  obligation  and 
duty  of  men  as  sinners.     Sin  is  a  violation  of  our  obliga- 
tions, whether  those  obligations  are  knowm  or  unknown  ; 
for  even  "  he  that  knew  not  his  master's  will,  and  did  it 
not,"  was  to  be  "beaten,"  though  with  "few  stripes." 
In  its  highest  and  most  aggravated  forms,  it  is  the  violation 
of  obligations  that  are  known.     "  To  him  that  knoweth 
to  do  good,  and  doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin."     Nothing 
so  much  aggravates  the  sins  of  men  as  light  and  know- 
ledge ;  yet  are  these  nowhere  so  concentrated  as  in  the  Cross 
of  Christ.      The  heathen   have   little   knowledge,  and 


404    THE  CROSS  HEJECTED,  THE  GREAT  SIN. 

therefore  they  have,  compared  with  those  who  dv/ell  in 
Christian  lands,  little  sin.  All  that  is  excellent  and  lovely 
in  the  character  of  that  great  and  good  Being,  who  is 
himself  the  author  of  the  Christian  revelation — all  that 
is  affecting  and  solemn  in  the  relations  which  exist  be- 
tween him  and  the  creatures  he  has  made — all  that  is 
binding  in  the  precepts  and  prohibitions  of  his  law,  and 
all  that  is  odious  and  vile  in  transgression — is  most  clearly 
and  distinctly  set  before  the  mind  in  the  teachings  of  the 
Cross.  Be  the  precept  what  it  may  which  the  unbeliever 
violates,  the  Cross  enforces  it  by  the  purest  and  the 
strongest  light  that  ever  shone,  or  ever  will  shine,  on  the 
minds  of  men.  No  man  can  disregard  the  claims  of  the 
Gospel,  except  from  a  strength  and  vigor  of  wickedness 
which  no  divine  instruction  can  check  or  subdue.  It  is 
impossible  for  him  to  disregard  them,  and  sin  at  any 
common  rate.  With  all  their  unnatural  and  brutal  pol- 
lution, Sodom  and  Gomorrah  never  sinned  as  Chorazin 
and  Bethsaida  sinned,  as  every  unbeliever  in  the  Cross 
in  Christian  lands  sins.  Such  a  man  shows  that  he  loves 
darkness  rather  than  light ;  he  shows  that  he  loves  to  sin, 
and  that  he  means  to  sin,  in  defiance  of  all  the  claims  of 
truth  and  duty,  and  at  every  hazard.  The  terms  on 
which  the  crucified  Saviour  offers  freely  to  save  men 
are,  that  they  shall  forsake  their  sins,  and  submit  them- 
selves to  his  authority  and  grace.  The  salvation  he  offers, 
and  which  they  may  have  for  the  taking,  consists,  in  no 
small  degree,  in  the  deliverance  it  effects  from  the  reign- 
ing power  of  sin ;  and,  in  rejecting  the  offer,  what  do 
they  but  practically  justify  all  their  former  sins — nay, 
repeat  and  glory  in  them,  and  virtually  declare  that,  in 
defiance  of  all  their  knowledge  of  God's  will,  they  have 
no  present  purpose  ever  to  perform  what  he  requires,  or 
leave  undone  that  which  he  forbids  1 


THE  CROSS  REJECTED,  THE  GREAT  SIN.    405 

In  estimating  the  wickedness  of  rejecting  the  Cross, 
there  is  also  to  be  taken  into  the  account  the  persevering 
resistance  which  the  unbeliever  makes  to  all  the  calls  and 
motives  to  repentance  with  which  the  Gospel  is  so  richly 
fraught.     These  are  very  many,  very  various,  and  un- 
utterably strong  and  tender  ^  they  are  fitted  to  try  the 
strength  of  human  wickedness,  and  when  resisted,  show 
how  deep  and  desperate  that  wickedness  and  that  resist- 
ance are.     Human  wickedness  is  always  enhanced  and 
aggravated  by  all  the  calls  and  motives  to  repentance, 
where  those  calls  and   motives    are   disregarded.     And 
where  are  these  motives  multiplied,  and  where  do  they 
assume  such  urgency  and  tenderness,  and  overwhelming 
force,  as  from  the  Cross  ?    That  rebuke  and  those  terrors, 
that  bondage  of  the  curse  and  those  forms  of  horror,  that 
exclusion  from  the  divine  favor,  that  abliorrence  of  the 
Holy  God  in  this  world,  and  that  everlasting  damnation 
in  the  world  to  come,  which  are  the  inheritance  of  all 
who  reject  the  Gospel — these  are  fearful  motives  indeed, 
but  effective  motives  to  all  save  those  whom  no  motives 
will  dissuade  from  their  unbelief.     That  beauty  of  holi- 
ness and  that  deformity  of  sin  which  are  there  expressed, 
that  all-sufficient  atonement  and  those  expiatory  suffer- 
ings, that  Saviour  and  that  mercy,  that  favor  of  heaven's 
King  restored,  and  his  communion  and  presence— sins 
forgotten,  and  the  wrathful  curse  removed,  adoption  into 
the  divine  family  and  an  inheritance  in  the  divine  king- 
dom—these form  another  class  of  moving  considerations 
by  which  the  Cross  would  fain  carry  the  sinner's  heart. 
All   this   the   unbeliever  tramples  under  his  feet.     He 
either  questions,  or  depreciates,  or  despises  it  all.     Con- 
siderations like  these,  and  other  kindred  motives,  warmly 
urged  and  oft-repeated,  are  everywhere  inviting,  urgmg, 
supplicating  him  to  turn  and  live.     But  he  is  "  stout- 


406         THE    CROSS    REJECTED,    THE    GREAT    SIN. 

hearted  and  far  from  righteousness."  No  precept  con- 
trols, no  penaUy  restrains  him,  no  chains  of  darkness 
nor  vials  of  wrath  terrify  him,  and  no  lips  of  love,  no 
arms  of  mercy  allure  and  charm  him.  Nothing  moves 
that  reluctant,  resisting  heart ;  unbelief  transforms  it  to 
adamant.  It  has  an  obstinacy  which  is  unyielding  and 
impenetrable,  and  which,  if  unmoved  and  unrepented  of, 
the  Cross  itself  cannot  rescue  from  a  fearful  retribution. 

It  is  a  thought  also  not  to  be  overlooked,  that  unbelief 
involves  the  highest  contempt  of  God.  All  sin  is  a  virtual 
contempt  of  God.  The  convinced  sinner  feels  this  ;  and 
still  more  deeply  does  the  true  penitent  feel  it,  and  in 
bitterness  of  soul  confesses,  "  Against  thee,  thee  only, 
have  I  sinned,  and  done  this  evil  in  thy  sight!"  Those 
sins  are  emphatically  most  contemptuous,  which  are 
committed  in  full  view  of  the  divine  character,  and  claims, 
and  glory.  When  the  great  facts  and  truths  which  the 
Cross  discloses  are  set  before  the  mind,  they  bring  God 
directly  into  view.  God  himself  is  the  Author  of  this 
wondrous  redemption.  Nowhere  is  he  brought  to  the 
view  of  the  mind  so  directly,  and  so  distinctly  ;  and  in 
no  view  of  him  is  it  possible  for  the  sinner  to  treat  him 
with  such  indignity  as  by  a  deliberate  and  intelligent 
rejection  of  this  method  of  mercy.  As  the  Cross  is  the 
highest  proof  of  the  divine  existence,  so,  in  rejecting  it, 
the  unbeliever  says  in  his  heart,  "  There  is  no  God."  As 
the  Cross  is  the  highest  expression  of  the  divine  love, 
wisdom,  justice  and  power,  so  unbelief  sets  at  nought 
these  affecting  exhibitions  of  the  divine  nature.  There 
is  no  such  demonstration  of  the  enmity  of  the  carnal 
mind  against  God  as  is  made  by  the  actings  of  unbelief. 
The  '■'•glory  of  God  shines  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.'-' 
His  Cross  is  the  highest  expression  of  that  glory.  All 
things  that  are  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  visible  and  in- 


THE  CROSS  REJECTED,  THE  GREAT  SIN.    407 

visible,  whether  they  be  thrones,  principalities  or  powers, 
are  but  auxiliaries  to  this  great  work  of  redeeming  mercy, 
and  as  the  more  retired  features  of  that  full  portraiture 
of  the  Deity.  Greater  honors  and  more  exalted  ascrip- 
tions of  praise  are  paid  to  him  for  this  redemption,  than 
for  any  other  enterprise  he  has  undertaken.  Yet  all  this 
is  set  at  nought  by  the  spirit  of  unbelief.  This  great 
work,  for  which  all  other  works  were  made — this  great 
design,  which  comprehends  all  other  designs — this  holiest 
and  best  purpose,  itself  the  glory  and  pride  of  the  eternal 
Godhead — is  opposed,  obstructed,  degraded  and  dishon- 
ored, wherever  it  is  rejected.  The  wisdom  and  love  of 
the  Eternal  Father  are  dishonored  in  the  gift  of  his  Son 3 
and  the  amazing  condescension,  kindness  and  self-denial 
of  the  Son  are  dishonored  in  his  mysterious  incarnation  and 
agonizing  sufferings ;  nor  is  God  the  Spirit  less  dishonored 
in  the  testimony  he  bears  to  the  truths  and  obligations 
of  the  Gospel.  The  ever-blessed  and  adorable  Trinity 
has  no  greater  complaint  against  men,  than  that,  after  all 
the  condescension  and  sufferings  of  the  Cross,  men  look 
upon  the  blood  of  the  Covenant  as  a  common  thing,  and, 
because  they  think  him  unworthy  of  their  confidence, 
and  not  fit  to  be  entrusted  with  their  salvation,  crucify 
the  Son  of  God  openly,  and  put  him  to  open  shame. 
The  whole  weight  of  this  combined  authority  and  influ- 
ence is  thrown  against  the  unbelief  of  men,  and  in  favor 
of  Christ  and  his  salvation  ;  yet  unbelief  resists  it  all, 
and  in  this  resistance,  trifles  with  the  King  eternal,  im- 
mortal and  invisible,  casts  contempt  on  Him  who  created, 
supports  and  moves  the  universe— mocks,  insults  Him 
before  whom  angels  bow  and  devils  tremble. 

There  is  another  characteristic  of  unbelief  which  also 
exhibits  its  great  wickedness  :  it  is  directed  against  the  best 
interests  of  that  kingdom  of  truth  and  holiness  which  Jesus 


408    THE  CROSS  REJECTED,  THE  GREAT  SIN. 

Christ  has  established  in  this  apostate  world.     The  Cross 
of  Christ  is  fitted  to  make  men  holy  and  happy,  and  to 
diffuse  and  perpetuate  the  highest  degree  of  holiness  and 
happiness.     The  system  of  truth  of  which  it  is  the  great 
expression  was  revealed  to  men  in  order  to  secure   this 
great  and  benevolent  object.     To  reject  it,  is  therefore 
virtually  to  oppose  all  the  holiness  and  happiness  it  is 
adapted  to  secure.     The  unbeliever  cannot  perform  an 
act  which  has   a  more  invariable  and  constant  tendency 
to  annul  the  mediatorial  work  of  the  Son  of  God,  frus- 
trate his  atonement,  and  rob  him  of  his  reward,  than  his 
own  rejection  of  this  great  sacrifice.     He  is  not   only 
willing  that  others  should  reject  it,  but  does  all  that  his 
own  constant  example  can  effect  to  induce  them  to  do  so. 
It  would  be  no  grief  of  heart  to  him  if  all  men  should 
treat  the  Saviour  just  as  he  treats  him,  and  if  every  son 
and  daughter  of  Adam  should  be  as  unholy  in  this  world, 
and  as  miserable  in  the  next,  as  he.    If  all  the  unbelief  in 
the  world  could  be  embodied  and  personified  in  one  man, 
it  would  be  found,  at  heart,  to  have  no  better  spirit  than 
this.     The  malignity  of  sin,  and  especially  the  great  ma- 
lignity of  the  sin  of  unbelief,  is  very  apt  to  be  acted  out 
in  those  seasons  of  mercy  when  God  is  in  an  unusual 
degree  pouring  out  his  Spirit,  and  bringing  men  in  great 
numbers  to  repentance.      When  unbelievers  see  others 
pressing  into  the  divine  kingdom,  they  are  unhappy ; 
their  hearts  rise  against  God,  as  well  as  against  those  who 
accept  his   mercy.     If  the  truth  were  known,  and  the 
spirit  which  actuates   them  expressed,  it  would  be  seen 
that  they  desire  all  to  enter  into  their  views,  sympathize 
with  their  feelings,  and  unite  with  them  in  their  hostility 
to  God  and  the  Gospel  of  his  Son.     When  the  great  mass 
of  men  around  them  make  light  of  the  Gospel,  they  are 
gratified ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  when  multitudes  are 


THE  CROSS  REJECTED,  THE  GREAT  SIN.    ^QQ 

arrested  in  their  career,  and  bowing  their  heads  before 
the  Cross,  they  are  dissatisfied  and  unhappy.  And  is  it 
too  much  to  say  that  such  persons  are  enemies  to  the 
great  interests  of  holiness  and  happiness  in  the  world  ?  I 
know  it  is  a  solemn  and  fearful  tliought  to  which  I  give 
utterance,  but  it  is  one  which  I  may  not  suppress.  Ab- 
stract from  the  bosom  of  such  a  man  all  those  bland  and 
social  affections  which  fit  him  for  a  habitation  among 
men — take  off  all  the  restraints  of  habit,  education,  self- 
respect,  and  preventing  grace — and  he  will  view  the 
holiness  and  happiness  of  the  divine  kingdom  just  as 
Satan  views  them,  and  feel  toward  them  just  as  Satan 
feels.  Such  is  the  true  spirit  of  the  malignant  sin  of 
unbelief. 

There  is  still  another  thought  which  illustrates  the 
great  wickedness  of  this  sin.  It  is  a  sin  against  the  soul. 
Men  sometimes  dream  that  they  are  their  own  proprie- 
tors, and  have  a  right  to  throw  away  their  sords  and  rush 
upon  an  undone  eternity.  But  the  soul  of  man  is  the 
most  precious  deposit  committed  to  his  keeping.  The 
benevolent  Creator  has  stamped  upon  it  a  value  beyond 
the  power  of  numbers,  or  thought,  to  estimate.  The  mer- 
ciful Saviour  has  propounded  the  still  unsolved  problem, 
*'  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world, 
and  lose  his  soul ;  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange 
for  his  soul  1"  But  though  born  for  immortality,  the 
soul  may  perish,  and,  even  from  this  early  dawn  of  its 
being  in  this  terrestrial  world,  sink  to  an  abyss  ten-fold 
deeper  than  eternal  annihilation.  There  is  one  sin  that 
kills  it,  and  only  one.  Unbelief,  incorrigible  rejection  of 
the  Cross  of  Christ,  separates  it  from  God  and  holiness, 
and  cuts  it  off  from  hope  and  heaven.  This  is  one  of 
the  aggravations  of  this  unnatural  crime.  It  is  cruel 
neglect  of  the  soul — it  is  eternal  suicide.  It  is  nothing 
18 


410        THE    CROSS    REJECTED,     THE    GREAT    SIN. 

less  than  choosing  to  rebel  against  God,  reject  his  Son, 
and  be  damned;  rather  than  submit  to  God,  receive  his 
Gospel,  and  be  saved.  It  is  the  deliberate  and  persever- 
ing refusal  of  eternal  life.  Well  has  Eternal  Wisdom 
declared,  "  He  that  sinneth  against  me  wrongeth  his  own 
soul:  all  that  hate  me  love  death."  Can  the  sin  be 
harmless  which  makes  a  rational  being  so  abandoned  as 
to  consent  to  be  damned  1  What  can  be  said  of  the  sin 
that  thus  resists  the  light  of  truth,  the  power  of  motives, 
the  authority  of  God— which  thus  trifles  with  the  best 
interests  of  the  divine  kingdom,  and  kills  the  soul — but 
that  it  is  the  sin  of  sins,  infamous  beyond  infamy,  and 
the  strongest  expression  of  human  wickedness,  even  in 
all  the  maturity  and  strength  of  its  moral  corruption  1 

Most  men,  if  they  avoid  gross  sins,  if  their  history  is 
not  blackened  with  crime,  have  no  serious  compunctions 
of  conscience,  though  from  the  love  of  sinning  they  reject 
the  Cross  of  Christ.  But  the  time  is  coming  when  it  will 
be  seen  to  be  a  fearful  crime  to  have  lived  and  died  a 
despiser  of  this  great  salvation.  Sodom  and  Babylon, 
India  and  China,  have  no  sin  that  can  be  compared  with 
this  rejection  of  a  crucified  Saviour.  "  If  I  had  not  come 
among  them,"  says  the  Saviour  of  the  Jews,  "  they  had 
not  had  sin  ;  but  now  they  have  no  cloak  for  their  sin." 
Proud  and  stubborn  unbeliever!  the  eye  that  never  slum- 
bers is  upon  you  as  you  wag  your  head,  and  pass  con- 
temptuously by  his  Cross.  Angels  look  with  wonder  to 
see  you  thus  cast  contempt  upon  their  Sovereign  Lord. 
And  with  what  emotions  of  horror  and  self-indignation 
will  you  yourself,  in  some  future  period  of  your  history, 
reflect  on  the  wickedness  of  having  closed  your  ears  and 
hardened  your  heart  against  the  claims  of  redeeming 
mercy  !  In  the  early  part  of  my  ministry,  I  became 
acquainted  with  a  heathen  youth  brought  from  the  Sand- 


THE  CROSS  REJECTED,  THE  GREAT  SIN.    411 

wich  Islands  to  this  land,  where,  having  dwelt  but  a  few 
short  years,  he  died  in  the  triumphs  of  faith.  God  was 
pleased  to  open  his  eyes  to  his  true  character  as  a  sinner, 
and  he  felt  that  he  was  lost.  One  day  he  was  found  sit- 
ting- alone  and  in  tears.  On  being  asked  why  he  wept, 
he  replied,  "  Because  I  have  been  so  long  in  this  Christian 
land  and  have  not  yet  accepted  Jesus  Christ  f^^  How  will 
the  dwellers  in  pagan  lands,  who  scarcely  heard  before 
they  cheerfully  accepted  the  Gospel,  rise  up  in  judgment 
against  the  men  of  this  generation,  who  have  so  long 
heard  and  rejected  the  only  Saviour  !  Oh,  men  are 
thoughtless  beyond  conception,  they  are  stupid  as  the 
brutes  that  perish,  and  madness  is  in  their  hearts,  who 
have  no  anxiety,  no  ingenuous  misgivings,  no  inward 
and  deep  distress  of  soul,  at  the  thought  of  having  so 
long  despised  and  rejected  God's  only  and  well-beloved 
Son !  * 

The  consequence  of  this  rejection  of  the  Cross  is  future 
and  eternal  death.  "  He  that  belie veth  not  shall  be 
damned."  Men  who  live  under  the  Gospel  deserve  to 
perish  for  not  believing  it.  Revolving  ages  of  suffering 
cannot  exhaust  their  ill-desert.  What  is  more  in  accord- 
ance with  all  true  notions  of  justice  and  equity,  than  that, 
if  you  refuse  the  life  he  offers,  God  should  give  you  the 
death  you  choose  ?  Had  you  heard  of  Christ  but  once, 
you  would  have  been  without  excuse  for  rejecting  him. 
But  you  have  heard  so  often  that  you  well-nigh  weary 
of  the  message.  The  lips  that  have  uttered  it  so  often 
in  your  hearing  will  soon  be  silent  and  dust  will  be 
upon  them.  God's  wearied  long-suffering,  too,  will  soon 
have  reached  its  last  limit.  As  yet,  his  clemency  waits, 
and,  kind  and  melting  as  the  love  of  Calvary,  urges  you 
to  "  repent  and  believe  the  Gospel." 


CONCLUSION. 


I  ERiNG  to  a  close  this  series  of  observations  on  the  at- 
traction of  the  Cross.  The  day  is  fast  approaching  when 
the  writer  and  the  reader  will  stand  before  the  Son  of 
Man :  he  to  answer  for  the  motives  and  the  manner  in 
which  he  has  endeavored  to  magnify  the  Cross  of  Him 
who  is  "  despised  and  rejected  of  men ;"  they,  for  the 
reception  they  have  given  to  these  great  truths.  As  I 
take  my  leave  of  this  interesting  subject,  allow  me  to  in- 
quire, Have  you  found  in  the  preceding  pages  any 
delineation  of  your  own  character,  or  any  response  to  the 
attractions  of  the  Cross  within  your  owr^  bosom  ?  If  you 
contemplate  these  attractions  without  interest,  without 
conviction,  without  love  and  confidence,  without  hope ; 
must  you  not  fill  your  own  bosom  with  self-reproach? 
You  may  turn  away  from  the  Cross  of  Christ,  but  wher- 
ever you  turn  will  find  "  no  more  sacrifice  for  sin." 
Behold,  then,  this  "  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the 
sins  of  the  world  !"  Often  has  he  been  "  lifted  up,"  and 
"set  forth  evidently  crucified  in  the  midst  of  you." 
Other  efforts  of  his  power  and  love  you  may  have  resisted ; 
but  there  remains  this  highest,  this  last — the  love  and 
power  of  the  Cross.  This  is  the  last  remaining  barrier 
in  your  path  to  perdition.  Heaven's  tenderest  mercy  is 
even  now  beseeching  you  to  stop  at  the  Cross  of  its  bleed- 
ing Son.  Ho  !  all  ye  that  pass  by,  stop  and  kneel  at  the 
Cross ! 

Christian  reader!  call  your  thoughts  and  affections  often 


CONCLUSION.  413 

around  tlie  Cross.  Let  it  ever  be  your  refreshment  and 
joy.  He  "  that  liveth  and  was  dead,  and  is  alive  forever 
more,"  has  said — what  has  he  said? — "  Because  I  live, 
YE  SHALL  LIVE  ALSO !"  I  do  iiot  kiiow  a  more  dehght- 
ful  assurance  in  all  the  Bible  than  this.  Oh,  it  is  a  touch- 
ing- thought,  that  the  death  was  his,  and  the  life  is  yours  ; 
his  the  sorrows,  the  weeping — yours  the  relief,  the  smiles, 
the  joy  ;  his  the  agony,  the  shame,  the  curse — yours  the 
pardon,  the  honor,  the  glory,  the  immortality ;  his,  too, 
the  restored  life,  the  life  that  shall  never  die — yours,  to 
live  and  reign  forever  with  the  Lord  !  Be  your  pilgrim- 
age long  or  short,  never  pitch  your  tent  but  in  sight  of 
the  Cross.  More  and  more  will  it  be  to  you  the  "  pearl 
of  great  price,"  your  glory,  and  the  crown  of  your  re- 
joicing. More  and  more  will  you  rest  upon  it  the  whole 
burden  of  your  sins  and  the  whole  weight  of  your  eternity, 
and,  with  a  confidence  alike  humbled  and  cheerful,  ascribe 
present  and  unceasing  honor  to  Him  who  was  "  lifted  up 
from  the  earth."     Say  of  it — 

"  The  Cross  my  all, 
My  theme,  my  inspiration,  and  my  crown  ! 
My  strength  in  age,  my  rise  in  low  estate  ! 
My  soul's  ambition,  pleasure,  wealth,  my  world  ! 
My  light  in  darkness,  and  my  life  in  death ! 
My  boast  through  time — bliss  through  eternity — 
Eternity  too  short  to  speak  its  praise  !" 


M  .    W.   DODD 

PUBLISHES, 

AMONG    MANY   OTHER    VALUABLE    WORKS, 
OF 

CHARLOTTE  ELIZABETH'S  WORKS| 

WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION    BY 

MRS.  HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE, 

AND    A    PORTRAIT    OF   THE    AUTHORESS    ON    STEEL. 
XilAKING-  THREE  LARGE  ELEGANT  OCTAVO  VOLUMES. 

This  edition  of  Charlotte  Elizabeth's  productions,  for  the  three 
great  requisites  of  Economy,  Legibility  and  Beauty,  challenges  com- 
parison with  any  work  in  the  market.  It  contains  upwards  of  1500 
large  octavo  pages,  and  nearly  thirty  different  productions.  Several 
of  her  works,  in  prose  and  poetry,  make  their  first  appearance  in  this 
country  in  this  edition.  In  it  arc  included  all  her  volumes  but  a  few 
juveniles  unsuited  to  a  standard  edition,  making  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  a  complete  edition  of  the  works  of  one  of  the  most  popular 
writers  of  the  present  age.     It  is  believed  that  in  no  form  could  a 

freater  amount  of  more  entertaining  and  useful  reading  for  a  family 
e  found,  at  the  same  expense  and  in  as  beautiful  a  style  as  that  here 
offered. 

OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS. 
"  Charlotte  Elizabeth's  Works  have  become  so  universally  known, 
and  are  so  highly  and  deservedly  appreciated  in  this  country,  that 
it  has  become 'almost  superfluous  to  praise  them.  We  doubt  exceed- 
ingly whether  there  has  been  any  female  writer  since  Mrs.  Hannah 
More,  whose  works  are  likely  to  be  so  extensively  read,  and  so  profit- 
ably read,  as  hers.  She  thinks  deeply  and  accurately,  is  a  great  ana- 
lyst of  the  human  heart,  and  withal  clothes  her  thoughts  in  most 
appropriate  and  eloquent  language.  The  present  edition,  unlike  any 
of  its  predecessors  in  this  country,  is  in  octavo  form,  and  makes  a 
fine  substantial  book,  which,  both  in  respect  to  the  outer  and  inner, 
will  be  an  ornament  to  any  library."— .^S/^any  Argus. 

"  These  productions  constitute  a  bright  relief  to  the  bad  and  corrupt- 
in"-  literature  in  which  our  age  is  so  prolific,  full  of  practical  instruc- 
tio'n,  illustrative  of  the  beauty  of  Protestant  Christianity,  and  not  the 
less  abounding  in  entertaining  description  and  narrative.'"— Joi»-.  of 

°"\n  justice  to  the  publisher  and  to  the  public,  we  add  that  this 
edition  of  Charlotte  Elizabech's  Works  will  form  a  valuable  acquisition 
to  the  Christian  and  Family  Lihvary ."^Christian  Observer. 

"  We  experience  a  sense  of  relief  in  turning  from  the  countless 
small  volumes,  though  neat  and  often  ornate,  that  the  press  is  con- 
stantly throwing  in  our  wav,  to  a  bold,  substantial-looking  octavo  of 
GOO  pa-es,  in  plain  black  dress,  with  a  bright,  cheerful  countenance, 
such  as  the  volume  before  us.  Of  the  literary  characteristics  of  Char- 
lotte Elizabeth,  we  have  had  frequent  occasion  to  speak.  Her  mt-rits 
and  defects  are  too  well  known  to  need  recapitulation  here.  — JVew- 
ark  D.  Adv. 

<'  This  third  volume  completes  this  elegant  octavo  edition  of  the 


works  of  this  popular  and  useful  author.  It  embraces  Judjea  Capta; 
The  Deserter ;  Falsehood  and  Truth ;  Judah's  Lion ;  Conformity ; 
and  the  Wrongs  of  Women.  The  works  themselves  are  so  well  known 
as  not  to  need  commendation.  The  edition  we  are  disposed  to  speak 
well  of.  It  is  in  clear  type,  on  fine  paper,  and  makes  a  beautiful  series. 
It  is,  moreover,  very  cheap." — JV.  ¥  Evangelist. 


We  also  publish  the  Works  of  Charlotte  Elizabeth,  in  part,  in 
separate  18mo.  volumes,  as  follows  : 


JUDAH'S  LION. 

THE  WRONGS  OF  WOMEN. 

FALSEHOOD  AND  TRUTH. 

CONFORMITY. 

SECOND  CAUSES,  OR  UP  AND 

BE  DOING. 
PASSING  THOUGHTS. 
DANGERS  AND  DUTIES. 
THE  FLOWER  GARDEN. 


THE  DESERTER. 
COMBINATION. 
THE  DAISY. 
THE  YEW  TREE. 
CHAPTERS  ON  FLOWERS. 
JUD/EA  CAPTA. 
"THE    CHURCH    VISIBLE    IN 
ALL  AGES." 


IX    ADDITION    TO    THE    FOREGOING    ARE    ALSO    PUBLISHED, 

THE  ADVANCEMEAT  OF  RELIGION  THE  CLAIMS  OF  THE 
TIMES.  By  Andrew  Reed,  D.  D.,  with  a  Recommendatory  Intro- 
duction by  Gardiner  Spring,  D.  D.     1  vol.  12mo. 

CHRISTIAN  RETIREMENT;  or.  Spiritual,  Exercises  of  the 
Heart.  By  the  Author  of  "Christian  Experience."  Third  Ame- 
rican, from  the  eighth  London  edition.  Illustrated  with  an  elegant 
steel  plate  frontispiece.     1  vol.  r2mo. 

A  GOLDEN  TREASURY  FORTHE  CHILDREN  OF  GOD.  Consist- 
ing of  Select  Texts  of  the  Bible,  with  Practical  Observations,  in 
Prose  and  Verse,  for  every  day  in  the  year.  By  C.  H.  V.  Bogatzky. 
A  new  edition,  carefully  revised  and  corrected.     1  vol.  IGmo. 

SERMONS,  NOT  BEFORE  PUBLISHED,  ON  VARIOUS  PRACTI- 
CAL SUBJECTS.     By  the  late  Edward  Dorr  Gritiin,  D.  D. 

PRAYERS  FORTHE  USE  OF  FAMILIES;  or,  The  Domestic  Min- 
ister's Assistant.  By  William  Jay,  author  of  Sermons,  Dis- 
courses, &c.,  &c.  From  the  last  London  edition.  With  an  Ap- 
pendix, containing  a  number  of  select  and  original  Prayers  for 
particular  occasions. 

MEMOIRS  OF  REV.  JOHN  WILLIAMS,  Missionary  to  Polynesia. 
By  Rev.  Ebenezer  Prout,  of  Halstead.     1  vol.  r2mo. 

A  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  LEGH  RICHMOND,  A.  M.,  Rector  of 
Turvey,  Bedfordshire.  By  Rev.  T.  S.  Grimshaw,  A.  M.,  Rector  of 
Burton-Latimer,  &c.  Seventh  American  from  the  last  London  edi- 
tion, with  a  handsome  Portrait  on  steel. 

MEMOIR  OF  THE  LIFE,  LABORS  AND  EXTENSIVE  USEFULNESS 
OF  THE  REV.  CHRISTMAS  EVANS,  a  distinguished  Minister  of 
the  Baptist  Denomination  in  Wales.     Extracted  from  the  Welsh 
Memoir  by  David  Phillips.     1  vol.  12mo.     With  Portraits. 
&c.,  &c.,  &c.,  &c. 


DATE  DUE 

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GAYLORD           #3523PI        Printed  in  USA 

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